The Britannian Succession Crisis of 2017 ATB
by Crossoverpairinglover
Summary: It is the year 2017 A.T.B. The Britannian Empire is growing and seems unstoppable, with only the struggling forces of Europe and a masked terrorist seeming to be a threat to their global conquest. However then the Emperor dies, and the Crown Prince, and the Prime Minister. In a single incident Britannia's fortunes turn, as those within and without respond to the power vacuum.
1. Odysseus

Been a while since I was last in this fandom, but with my return I offer you an idea that I am sure can be enjoyed by many.

Born in my mind and raised on Spacebattles, please enjoy

…

If you asked any person or child in the Empire who were the most important people, the uneducated would likely offer three names.

Emperor Charles Zi Britannia, the 98th Emperor of Britannia.

Odysseus Eu Britannia, the Crown Prince and First Born.

And Schneizel El Britannia, the Prime Minister and Second Prince.

It was a logical enough assumption for the under-educated to make, but in truth it was quite the opposite of that. An untruth.

He was no match his father or his younger brother. The person who'd replace him in the titular three would be something he'd have to debate to himself on: perhaps Cornelia, perhaps Sir Bismark, perhaps someone else.

It was not to say that he didn't have his role. He performed many important domestic affairs well enough Schneizel had no reason to get involved with himself, particularly domestically.

He hadn't the nerve for rapid, unexpected events, but put him in front of a plan or something expected and orderly and he'd perform the task better than most of his siblings.

With the slight caveat that the category of siblings who were good at managing domestic affairs was dwarfed by the amount of siblings good at leading military forces, and those who were good at causing trouble of course.

Of the part about planned events, he liked to think the current one was going well enough.

It was a table of the three important men as defined by the common commoner, and so far the tension that often existed between his father and his younger brother was absent.

They chewed the pastries that lay between them on an ornate plate without complaint, which was quite a relief given how they were different than they had been at previous meetings.

"Who made these again? It wasn't Euphie."

The Emperor questioned after he finished off a tart.

"It was one of the daughters of your guardsman Jerald. The head cook's younger sister did the cookies. They of course were not aware of whom these were to be eaten by, a security measure. There is of course no reason not to trust them, but they aren't Euphie."

The Emperor nodded in agreement to the answer given, and reached for a cookie.

It had been something he had started a year or so ago. As Crown Prince the stability of the realm was of great concern to him, and there was no greater threat to it than the tension between the current Emperor and the one said to be most likely to succeed him.

Not even Zero could claim yet, though he was quite sure the terrorist would love to eventually be that threatening.

As such he had taken to hosting the two of them for a private bit of snacking and discussion of important matters. It was quite an informal affair, and also quite secretive.

There was no reason to make it so obvious where the important cogs of the Britannian machine were, and in the past only one other person had ever been aware or invited to these events: The Third Princess Euphemia Li Britannia.

That had been in part because of her unique ability to be loved by anyone, and in the earlier meetings he had relied on that to keep tensions from boiling over. That no longer seemed necessary, though he did miss her company.

"I hear that we've been having set backs in Africa."

Charles spoke up, and once upon a time he'd have expected the worst.

"We've been forced to fall back in Egypt. In truth it was partially an issue of supply lines more than anything Europe did. With Area 18 in our control Egypt is vulnerable to a two-front assault, and even under present circumstances they are forced to defend from both east and west even when they really only need to from the west."

The present circumstances Schneizel mentioned meaning Cornelia being in Area 11 and not on the front lines attacking Egypt via the Sinai.

It was a necessity: beyond the prestige damage from Clovis being defeated and murdered as he was by Zero, Area 11 was utterly crucial to be kept in control. If Sakuradite flow was cut off, their war machine would utterly grind down to a halt.

They could still fight, but they'd be lucky to only have to abandon half of their African gains for a defensible perimeter without the pink mineral.

That wasn't even getting into conquests such as Area 18.

"Fortunately the recent gains in Egypt are the only negative in the last week or so. Between Cornelia and Zero refrain distribution has been gutted in Area 11 and we'll soon be seeing the full defeat of the Japanese Liberation Front. With both eliminated the area's productivity should increase notably."

The Emperor nodded at his assessment, while Schneizel had a remark of his own.

"How remarkable that one of our enemies has assisted us so. It's a pity that more terrorists aren't like that. if it were, the true potential of Area 8 would have been reached years ago without Pyrrhus."

He could only wince, but not because of his brother. Not directly at least.

Pyrrhus Hi Britannia was the 5th Prince of Britannia: a 21 year old who had been Viceroy of Area 8, once the Empire of Brazil, for 5 years. In that time the area's productivity had skyrocketed while the resistance elements that plagued the entire continent Area 8 was on were rendered less frequent and severe. The stability of Area 8 had allowed for greater ease of their African conquests via the narrowest crossing point across the Atlantic.

The nobility _hated _Pyrrhus, and he was the most complained about member of the royal family as a result.

"A man can do whatever he wishes so long as he is successful. When you fail, one finds that the consequences were always there for him, just waiting for his failure."

The emperor's little nugget of wisdom was what allowed Pyrrhus to undergo much of his ideals despite the nobility's complaints.

The nobility complained about a lot of things. He had even gotten statements from them angered that Cornelia did not seem on track for cleaning up all resistance in Area 11 within two months, or even two weeks in one case.

Such a small timeline was simply ludicrous.

They did not complain about Pyrrhus's schedule as they did his governing philosophy.

Pyrrhus's was the concept of 'All Men were Not Created Equal': Same as the Empire's and many of his siblings.

Cornelia the chief general of the armies followed it, as did another royal general in Igraine Mo Britannia the 4th Princess.

In the navy 4th Prince Reginald Mer Britannia followed it as well, and they were hardly alone.

Each and every one had their own view on the phrase, and could explain it in their own way.

Pyrrhus has his own way of seeing it, and it was one the nobles greatly disliked.

To many nobles, and non nobles for that matter, it was the reason to look down on those conquered. The words 'All Men' referring to groups of people.

To Pyrrhus 'All Men' were individuals, not groups. What mattered to him was talent, not birth.

In Pyrrhus's ideal world a Britannian would be someone with notable talent regardless of birth. In his world the talented Eleven pilot of the 7th generation frame from Camelot would be Britannian, while a noble's son without accomplishment would be a Number.

Naturally the nobles found the idea quite unseemly, and his assignment to the Viceroy status of Area 8 was greeted by the Nobles as getting rid of him.

They were quite upset that he had thrived there, even as the nobles put less into Area 8 in response.

The fact that just meant that Pyrrhus could do even more in Area 8 without their interference and thus become stronger in his position and thus harder for them to deal with later...did not seem to register to the nobles in question.

"Words to live by I suppose. Be successful and the consequences of your actions leave you at bay. Yet they are never truly gone."

He winced at Schneizel's words. Was he trying to goad the Emperor with that!?

"Consequences that don't seem like they did anything are still there, and they still hurt. They just don't debilitate you. You can only overcome them."

The Emperor's words were unusually wistful for him, and he wondered what had sparked them.

The wives who had died, or the children who had died. He'd guess the latter himself.

The Emperor liked some of his children, he wasn't sure he liked any of his wives. He was under no illusion that the union that made either he or Schneizel was that of love, or that the Emperor himself loved either of them.

Once it had seemed he had loved Marianne vi Britannia, but now he knew it wasn't true.

There were people in the cold heart of the Emperor, but not a wife or one of the two so called great men of the Empire.

There was Bismark, whom the Emperor had told to skip the meal and take some medicine for a bit of a illness he had caught, and Euphemia. Who knew how many others.

"Speaking of which, I haven't the time to have congratulated Marrybell for being reinstated to the royal family. Do send her my well wishes, and my blessing and support for that initiative she's interested in."

He nodded at Schneizel's request.

Marrybell's anti-terrorism task force idea, if it worked out, would be a great boon for Imperial security. It could even be used to replace Cornelia if they needed her out of Area 11 immediately.

Say, if the line in Africa completely collapsed and they needed Cornelia's elite troops to stabilize things.

He hoped it never came to that. Such a problem would a utter disaster for the empire.

The only worse thing than a catastrophic military reversal would be a succession crisis, and no one wanted that. He was fully prepared to abdicate to avoid one, and even that was unlikely.

The Emperor might have gained a few pounds in recent years, but he was perfectly healthy and far too protected to be killed.

_THUD_

The thud was soft and singular, but it rang out like a barrage of gunfire. His and Schneizel's attention shot to the Emperor, who had collapsed face first onto the table. His wig had went askew, and he wasn't breathing.

His eyes darted to his brother's eyes: purple like many in the family but unlike his own.

The eyes, from which shone his brother's fearsome intellect, the ruthlessness that made him the true heir to the Empire, were alight with panic and shock.

This was not Schneizel's doing. This was not something he allowed to happen.

It had caught him just as much off guard as it had him.

Suddenly the eyes rolled back, and Schneizel joined his father face first on the table, unmoving and dead.

_THUD_

The seconds that rolled on next were like hours to him, and he was distantly aware that whatever was happening was going to take him next. A even more distant thought was that of hope, and between the two raced hundreds of other thoughts, all competing to be said and thought in depth.

What was going on?

Poisoning?

Was it oral or by some sort of dart?

Who could have known?

Should he shout?

Should he duck?

What sort of poison was being used?

Run?

Hide?

Say something profound and historic?

Of all thoughts that were clashing in his head, it was the last one that seemed to stay, a desire to say something that would befit the horror that had just been unleashed, and what worse horrors would follow it regardless of his own fate.

"Oh no."

Alas, he was not his father or his brother. Oh no would be his last words, and it was not a statement worthy of Shakespeare.

Though it would, he knew, perfectly sum up what would follow this.

_THUD_

...  
**  
ROYAL FAMILY STATUS**

Charles Zi Britannia: THE EMPEROR IS DEAD! LONG LIVE...someone

Odysseus Eu Britannia: Dead, dying in a manner that did not get anyone the pot (most betted on a murder by Schneizel, a few by Guinevere, one long shot by Carine...)

Schneizel El Britannia: Dead, mourned by many. Kanon in particular.

Guinevere de Britannia: Quite possibly ruler by default at the moment. Not a good thing.

Cornelia Li Britannia: Planning Narita attack, unaware that the blood is about to start gushing that doesn't belong to the JLF.

Euphemia Li Britannia: Wondering why Zero seemed familiar...

Reginald Mer Britannia: Above water

Igraine Mo Britannia: Purely innocent

Pyrrhus Hi Britannia: More prepared than most for the coming storm.

Carine Ne Britannia: May have trouble in the near future

Castor and Pollux Rui Britannia: They exist.

Laila la Britannia: More bad news for the poor girl

Marrybell Mel Britannia: Will be busy in the next few days

...  
**  
NON ROYAL STATUS**

V.V: About to have the worse day of his life when someone tells him what happened

Bismark Waldstein: Author forgot to kill him, get's to live longer than planned

Anya Alstreim: About to cry at the news

Zero: Someone stole his kills, will not be happy.

Lloyd Asplund: Senses a disturbance, as if millions of dollars of funding suddenly vanished

Yeahh, I'm going to ignore the wiki's list and give my own interpretations of areas. Just for the record for things before Japan...

The Homeland is a combination of the United States and Canada for the most part, along with any colonies and territories in the Western Hemisphere that Britain would have had by the point Napoleon won. The Bahamas, Jamaica, Guyana, and Belieze for example. I'll just call it Area 1.

Area 2 is the rest of the Caribbean: places like Cuba and Haiti.

Area 3 is Mexico and Central America.

Area 4 is Alaska, the Canadian Territories, and Greenland.

Area 5 is Iceland.

Area 6 is Northern South America (Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, etc)

Area 7 is Andean South America (Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, and Falkland)

Area 8 is Brazil and Uruguay

Area 9 is one half of the Pacific, such as Hawaii

Area 10 is the other half, which includes New Zealand

Igraine Mo Britannia was offered up by spacebattles user PKD.

Now my own interpretation of the royal lineage is that the number in succession you are in drops if you are out of the family for a while. Nunnally and Marrybell are 87th and 88th because they were exiled for a while, and came back in at the back (and presumably after a few deaths like Clovis). So while I don't think Marrybell canonically is back in the family until R1 is over (I don't claim expertise on side materials), I'm fudging that here.

Also I'm going to leave this because I find sometimes people can struggle with 'P.O.V versus Fact'. Odysseus is not 100% right about certain things. This Charles has the same view on Marianne as Canon Charles. Odysseus just thinks the same thing Canon Lelouch did however.

He's probably right about Charles's lack of love for him or the second prince though.

Anyway next chapter the Royals and other important figures learn that things have gone very, very wrong (or very, very right). The absolute worst is probably not going to happen, though said chapter would _only _be chapter 2….


	2. Cornelia, Euphemia, Katase, Lelouch, CC

Chapter 2 time

…

With every conquest and campaign one needed a plan.

It did not matter the front or the opponent, going into a battle you started without one was the greatest error any commanding officer could make.

She had one for every defeated opponent she had left in her wake across two continents, and Area 11 was no different just because the target was a terrorist and not a nation that was to be conquered.

The Goddess of Victory as she was called had spent her entire travel time from Area 18, in the time Euphemia took to familiarize herself with the Tokyo Settlement and nearly get killed by a few half-mad Purists as it were, coming up with the raw outline of one.

That she had executed while she and the strategists and confidants she had gathered to herself ever since her military career began came up with a more extensive plan.

The raw plan was to fully secure the Tokyo Settlement and reduce known terrorist centers like Saitama to dust, which was a success by anyone's standard. The only failure she had was Zero not being captures at said dust pile, but what that had allowed her was to gain his measure and fully learn Zero's weak spots.

That weak spot was being green.

Zero was an intelligent piece of scum, but one who had evidently not had the length of experience to fully use his talents. There was also clearly an operating decision or two he had made that had proven foolish then.

Darlton had offered the opinion he had only relied on the local terrorist cell, and not any other groups. Zero had surely seen how well that went for him.

As she and the others with her had deduced, there were three key weaknesses that Zero had, seeing as he seemed to be forming his own cell versus just appearing where he was needed like a phantom.

He was not a seasoned commander.

He did not have extensive resources.

The men under him were still rabble.

With the Refrain situation contained for the time being, her operations going forward were to prevent Zero from fixing the first and third of his weaknesses immediately, and then the second weakness.

To prevent the former the JLF would be crushed. That should have been done years ago, and she was always going to do that. The Lake Kawaguchi nightmare just meant she was going to enjoy it a lot more.

With the JLF destroyed Zero would not have access to experienced commanders or trained soldiers. He would have to gain such things the old fashioned way, which he was doing with his refrain raiding.

It was a trade off to make the refrain problem handled quickly, and even then there was a difference between shooting criminals and shooting her men. It was a calculated risk in the end. Zero would not gain the experience to hope to match her, and she'd corner him and his so called Black Knights for a decisive and total defeat.

After the JLF, she'd handle the second issue with the source of the JLF's funding and resources. Ideally by finding a smoking gun within the JLF base, but without it she had means of seeing just how loyal the NAC was.

She had many paths to pursue them, and many things beyond their loyalty that she had questions about.

"So Viceroy, that is all the information I have about the recent miner safety protocol initiatives. I'm sure we can all agree that the increase to both productivity and worker safety is a good thing."

If the man had been Britannian, she could see herself liking Taizō Kirihara.

She had a soft spot in her heart for those who earned their fame and power with their own work and actions, as opposed to piggybacking on that of others. It was among the many reasons Marianne vi Britannia was someone whom she had never seen matched in all her years.

It wasn't even something she could claim for herself: the stink of nepotism was something she had never quite been free of, even with the many shows of her own talents over the years.

Kirihara had founded his own company and taken that company to the top of the world until seven years ago, and even after that point it was quite valuable to the imperial economy. If he hadn't been half as good at his job he'd have been replaced with a Britannian years ago.

But that status meant that he was just as likely to be the rat that the JLF had been relying on, among a swarm of other rats. A double agent.

A spy.

Though on his list of potential and likely crimes, there was one crime worse than even treachery she suspected him of.

It would be an excellent way to remove him, and thus shut down any potential supplying of Zero.

Tapping on her desk for a moment, she stared right into his unflinching eyes.

"Before you leave, there is one question I do have for you. It relates to events in the immediate period before and during the conquest."

"It relates to the young Prince and Princess does it not?"

The way Kirihara said it was quite respectful, without a mocking inflection in his tone.

"Yes. The children of Empress Marianne: Lelouch and Nunnally vi Britannia."

Her most cherished half siblings. Euphie's as well.

The first of too many this island chain had taken from her, and among her greatest failings.

The question of what she could have done to keep them from being taken to Japan raged in her mind quite frequently: the most prominent being having Euphemia literally sit of the traumatized ten year old who was smart enough to realize something was fishy but not experienced enough to know not to confront the Emperor about it.

It was a little bit of humor, on top of her sadness.

"I was questioned on this by Prince Clovis and Or...Sir Gottwald a few years ago as well. Fortunately my memory has not deteriorated with the years, so I can offer you the same explanations and theories I did then now. Or have you already learned of what I had spoken of with them and would like additional information?"

She'd remind the Honorary Britannian not to call Gottwald that: only Britannians could call him Orange, but it was a minor enough point that she'd let it slide with a warning look.

When they had questioned the disgraced man about Orange, he had not mentioned that. It was only after Guilford had dug a little that such things had come up and further information on the matter was disclosed.

She could give him credit for not trying to use her siblings as shields to save his own hide. Perhaps it was why she had not discharged him or had him executed.

"I am aware of that conversation, and of what investigations the two had done into their whereabouts. We have the last known location they were seen alive as provided by Kururugi."

Incidentally that had put the now Warrant Officer on the radar, which was why he had been in the group that Clovis had at Shinjuku.

Why the Number had been there to fall into Camelot's death trap of a super weapon (she had heard talk the thing didn't have an ejector seat and could believe it).

How Orange had known that there was a perfect scapegoat to blame for Clovis's death when they had no suspect.

That had led to Zero displaying himself to the world like a prancing bird and making a fool of an entire political movement and the empire at large.

"I take it you wish for any more information I could offer? I held nothing back that I was asked about, but it is not impossible that information was simply neglected to be asked or said."

Kirihara was again quite polite. It was certainly better than she had thought it might be.

Perhaps she was too used to dealing with nobles and their arrogance to forget that she was speaking to a high ranking Number, who had to be respectful on the threat of death.

He at least hadn't tried to question if they were still counted as royalty despite their disinheritment. That had come up a few times among nobles and soldiers, according to Orange.

Clovis had them punished quite effectively for such thoughts.

"Quite. I would like to leave this island not only with the head of that masked menace, but also the bones of my siblings to be buried with their mother."

The Emperor had a few boons she owed her, and such a act would be well worth such a valuable favor.

"Very well...though do be aware that I cannot promise that everything this old man could offer you is of use. Let' see...ah yes, the young Prince. Quite an intelligent young man: capable of learning quickly. He learned Shogi in days: that being a type of board game that was played before the conquest. A bit like chess, which he was quite good at. A pity he was never that strong physically. I'm amazed that he could carry his sister as he did."

The man wasn't wrong that what he had thought of wasn't useful, though she'd let him dig through his memories.

The reminder of the idea of Lelouch carrying Nunnally, and through what both Kururugi and military reports had agreed upon, was not a thought she had liked dwelling on, and she had a stomach for fields of dead bodies.

Euphie did not, and she could blame her. Beyond the fact that fields of dead bodies were never pleasant, the idea that such a thing would be among their brother's last memories was not a pleasant one.

"Kururugi-k...young Kururugi and Sumeragi did not get along with him at first, though they faired quite better with Nunnally, the sweet little girl. Children of privileges rarely do when they first meet, let alone ones with such clashing talents. Kururugi as I'm sure you are aware excels at physical abilities as much as your brother did mental, and Sumeragi's mind could have paired well together had she not been engaged at the time, among other obvious issues. Though interacting with your siblings helped them grow into the people they are today, even if it did take literally scaring the poor girl. She probably knows that the 'Oni' was just the Prince by now, but I have not asked her of such things."

She had no idea what an Oni was, though she was sure it was some sort of Eleven folklore. It was a cultural thing that was more something Clovis might have appreciated.

She was not a woman of culture, even her own. Such things had not been taught to her well by her mother, as it had not been her path in life.

"If you are thinking about anyone who would have known about their presence with the Prime Minister...well it was public knowledge. What they looked like wasn't, but to many just being Britannian could have been enough. They could speak Japanese: the young princess was quite a quick learner as well despite her age and injuries, but in the end they stood out like sore thumbs. My people are many things, but I cannot claim inclusive is among them. Even Britannian was better, though I will not ponder if it still is."

At several points in history, groups of people were granted Britannian citizenship in full, sparing them from the status of Number. Among those people had been the Jews: who had emigrated from Europe in mass at several points in their history to avoid persecutions.

There were people who'd still question if those groups should be Britannian, but the Jewish were generally excluded as such people were not prone to wanting the Knight of One to show up at their doorstep.

The Purists were among such groups, though there was disagreement among their number about that stance and only had it out for Honorary Britannians.

"Though I do wonder how Britannian they'd look from far away..."

The tone of that last sentence was not that of a ponderous older man, but a more pointed question.

"And what, by chance, do you mean by that?"

The look Kirihara sent her way was that of a sadness, but a firm resolve to make whatever point he'd dare make next.

"What I wonder, Viceroy, is if they were unfortunate enough to be caught in one of the later engagements of the war. Perhaps a bombing run, or a mistaken fire by a sniper from far away."

Euphie said her brow was prone to twitching violently when she was 'about to go overboard with being an older protective sibling'.

She'd disagree it was going overboard in anything she did: noble brats had a bad habit of thinking they could seduce their way to power with princesses, and with how two consorts were murdered in terrorism attacks in a single year she was hardly unwarranted in how much security she had for Euphie.

The way Kirihara reacted: a flash of surprise and a change to what she could only call a 'bold cautious tone' in his words, made her wonder if how visible such a twitch was.

"I mean no disrespect when I say this, you wished for my insight and I can only offer my thoughts. You also are not known for being fond of flattery, so I will say it simply. If your siblings died, it was likely as a result of the actions of the Britannian invasion. Either as victims of friendly fire, or because the invasion inflamed the flaws of the population to a point they'd murder innocent children."

She'd reflect later the only reason that she did not draw her gun on Kirihara right then and there was the paging that came her way immediately after he finished saying his words.

Words that lingered in her mind like worry about her sister would.

"Cornelia. We need to talk. Clear your schedule"

The voice was that of Nonette Enneagram. The Knight of Nine, a woman she could actually fear, and a trickster menace whose words were usually filled with mirth.

She had ordered her with a steel to her voice that could mean only one of two things, and as she had not committed any treason...

"We're done."

Kirihara did not seem offended at her bluntness, though she could tell he was curious about what Nonette's urgency was going to be about.

He wouldn't be lingering around to find out of course, but she suspected there would be talk of it among treacherous circles soon enough.

All the more reason to quickly snuff out the JLF, though she feared that if Nonette was not hear to arrest her for (non-existent) treason against the Empire that she may have to delay such action.

…

Kirihara had left without protest or incident. The only issue had been his speed, which was something she could blame him for.

The seventy-year old was a seventy-year old. She couldn't exactly arrest him for moving slowly.

Technically she could, but it would look petty even among the Britannians. It would also do nothing good.

However he moved fast enough for an old man, and soon her office had five within it who were quite free of treason.

Herself, Euphemia, Darlton, Guilford, and Nonette. Nonette was leaning against the door for a moment, testing to see just how much she could hear from the guards that were posted outside of it.

"Solid door. Little leak. The guards are posted far enough away to not overhear."

Her terse words, uncharacteristic as ever, were said as she pushed herself off the door and walked a few steps forward before giving the four of them a serious look.

"You are the first people outside of Pendragon to learn of this. You're getting this information before even some of the other Knights of the Round: and I am not just talking about Bradley. No other royal family members or commanders know this either. This information cannot be allowed to leak before it is ready. The Emperor is dead, along with Crown Prince Odysseus and Prime Minister Schneizel."

Euphemia gasped in horror, while she and her top commanders winced in shock.

She herself felt like the earth was distorting. It was a worse feeling than when she had learned of Clovis's death.

Though in truth, her world still felt more stable then when the Vi Britannia's died.

"...How..."

Euphemia was only able to gasp out a single word as Nonette sighed in frustration.

"That we are still trying to figure out. Well, we know that they were poisoned, and that the two who baked the tainted foods are dead. They weren't the culprit, but were killed in a means to attempt to frame suicide. The investigation is three days in, and we've still not gotten any ideas on how the poison was applied."

"Forgive me for speaking, as I am neither royalty or a personal knight, but three days seems an unusual delay. Princess Cornelia is the chief general of the military, and she was informed of the murder of Prince Clovis as soon as possible. The current situation is even more urgent, no disrespect meant to the Third Prince."

That was certainly a question she'd like to know.

"Bismarck decided to hold off on informing any royal outside of the capital until we are certain of their innocence in the murder. Beyond a need to question all present royals in Pendragon first, the deaths of those three are very easy to be seen as a power play for power for a royal. A member of the Imperial Family is the obvious suspect, especially the cunning ones. That is why Guinevere and Carine aren't suspects: they aren't ones for poison or thinking to frame the cooks."

"But surely the Lady Cornelia is beyond suspicion in this?"

Guilford had a bit too high an opinion of her. She could see herself murdering the Emperor in several situations, including culpability in Marianne's murder.

Though she certainly wouldn't poison him: she'd crush him with her Knightmare Frame limb by limb.

"Oh, she was actually cleared quickly. It was actually Euphemia that was the prime suspect for the last two days."

That had been said with Nonette's usual mirth, though it was by no means funny.

Euphie let out a cry of shock, Darlton let out a growl from the depths of some furious beast, and Guilford narrowed his eyes.

She on the other hand, felt that violent twitch come back.

"Who **dared **to slander her!? What in the hell would convince Bismarck that she could **possibly **murder anyone, let alone family!?"

"Stop twitching Nelly, I didn't say I wanted to date your little sister. She's not my type. And as to Bismarck, his cold medicine didn't make him think she was guilty. That was actually on Guinevere, whom I might add is pretty much the Empress at the moment. Though trust me when I say the moment things are more stable she is going to be convinced to abdicate. As to why she was the prime suspect for what I'll agree was a stupidly long period of time, it was because the three were murdered during a secret luncheon. This luncheon was something that only four people knew about, with all other elements of it supplied for unspecified and unrelated events, such as the poisoned cookies and tarts. The only person who knew of these meet ups who isn't dead is Euphemia."

Thoughts of dismembering her elder sister precluded her from speaking next, which instead fell to Euphemia whose words carried a mixture of sadness and calm explanation, as if she was trying to keep things from getting more argumentive.

Which was likely.

"Sister, I can at least understand why I would be looked at. The meals they are talking about were a secret project by myself and Odysseus to try and mend the rift that was growing between Father and Schneizel. They were total secrets, no one but me should have known about it."

Her sister paused, a finger to her lips in thought as her still watery eyes seemed to gain a horrified, unsettled light to them.

"Wait, are you sure the poison was aimed at father, Schneizel, and Odysseus? If the food was discretely made for them, it could have been meant to kill someone else."

Cornelia wanted to tell her sister that was unlikely. That it was nonsense. That it couldn't be.

An image of the fictional supervillain wannabe of a terrorist who murdered her brother, humiliated the empire, and saved her sister from other terrorists flashed in her mind, as if telling her no, nonsense was quite real and that could totally happen.

"...Can't see we looked into that. I'll have to bring that up with Bismarck and Princess Marrybell. It will be more productive than interrogating the dentist of Hannes Gue Britannia. Oh yeah, he's gone by the way."

"Poison?!"

Cornelia did not know much of that brother, but the idea of a fifth blood relative dead in a single year was not something she wanted to hear.

Nonette's mirth, which had been returning, had vanished again.

"Sadly no. Hannes is still alive, but he is no longer in succession. Following his stripping of rank by Guinevere, he has moved to Area 4 and will be staying there. Forever. At Frozen Hell."

Frozen Hell. One of the highest security prisons in all of the Britannian Empire. Used for only the worst of individuals. A potential home for Zero when she captured him if his death was deemed as too good for him.

For a royal to be sent there...

She shook her head. She'd rather not imagine what crimes could have possibly been committed.

"Will it be required for me to return to Pendragon?"

It was not a good situation either way. If she didn't go to Pendragon Guinevere would most certainly do something stupid, other than attempting to declare Euphemia a potential murderer. If she did go to Pendragon that could jeopardize the fight against Zero and the rest of the Eleven terrorists.

She could probably manage with just Guilford as long as no civil wars started up too quickly. She trusted Darlton and Alec to take the JLF and keep Zero pinned for a while. It would not be ideal, but she could manage.

"Nelly, we are trying to keep a civil war from starting up. We have to work with the Empress by default for now, so having an ocean between you and Guinevere is for the best. You are an easy rallying point for opposition to Guinevere, and while I am quite sure that you wouldn't be happy on the throne I don't think Guinevere would manage to keep that in mind. But back to what you need to do: we can't keep the deaths secret forever, but we can work to keep the information flow controllable. Make your own judgments on what commanders to inform, and prepare for when the Europeans or Chinese become aware of it. You being here will keep the latter in check, while we're needing you to prepare with the commanders in Africa in case of morale changes. The Knights of the Round in Africa have yet to be informed, as previously said, as sadly we aren't the best with state secrets."

She did the calculations in her head quickly.

"That will likely delay our planned offensive on the JLF a day, possibly two. But it should be manageable."

...

Indeed it did take a single day for her to conference with the most trusted of the African generals: establishing several planned defensive plans and priorities in case of information leaks leading to enemy offensives.

The coastal cities such as Algiers, New Carthage, and Oran were to be fortified in particular, as they were most likely targets of death spurred European offensives.

The JLF offensive of Narita would take place a day later on August 28th, 2017 A.T.B

...

She had already been planning on being involved.

It was the spark of a restless feeling of unease that had settled in her since the hostage crisis.

The reveal of the murders in Pendragon only made it more pressing, and more for settling her own worries.

In the event Cornelia had to leave Area 11 to fight in conflicts elsewhere, be it in Africa or god forbid the Homeland, if she had a better idea of commanding military forces it would reduce Cornelia's night terrors.

Her sister could sleep unbothered by visions of her blundering into a rout: her nightmares would be what they usually were.

The occasional one about a massive defeat at the hands of the enemy, and the more frequent ones centered around Marianne, Lelouch, and Nunnally.

She herself had a bad night in dreams of her father, Oddyseus, and Schneizel dying, though by Zero instead of poison.

Zero unlike herself had been quickly ruled out as the murderer, but the idea of Zero killing her father lingered prominently in the back of her mind, more so than her brothers.

There was something about him that continued to bother her like an itch, and it made her imaging him killing her father in particular.

Of course Zero wasn't here right now. He was probably going after human traffickers, as they had gotten reports of several such raids by the Black Knights recently against people who targeted the Elevens for things she dared not imagine.

Cornelia was letting him do that much like the refrain raids, though she had some staff gathering intelligence for her own raids against some of the larger ones. There were several tied to illegal Britannian operations, as well as Chinese, but there was one group called the Zygerri that no one seemed to know the origin of that was particularly effective and of great concern.

Of course mysterious criminal organizations were not the focus of today, but a known one in the Japanese Liberation Front.

The JLF's main base had been isolated to a specific stretch of the Narita mountain range, which was currently being encircled and scaled by a fairly standard Britannian armored attack force.

She recognized the battle tactics even before the advisers in the G1 defined them for her.

The mixed Knightmare-Tank assault force moved in a creeping barrage formation: the slower tanks moved continuously while firing, which was stronger and farther in range that that of a Knightmare.

Softening the targets up for the still quite strong, but far more nimble Knightmares to pick apart and shatter.

It was one that Cornelia had used in several battles, and was a common but effective Britannian tactic.

Many would be surprised just how useful a tank could be in the era of the Knightframe, but the machines of war had adapted to the era with heavier armor and more firepower.

They were slower, but the heavy tank was still a crucial part of all major armies, and could and did decide the fate of battles.

She recalled a noble's son who had laughed at one of her sister's tank commanders as being an old relic who had died in a defeat Britannia suffered in the Sahel campaigns that was primarily at the hands of European tanks.

Light Tanks had been phased out, as Knightmare mostly outclassed them and their advantage in fire power was not enough to keep them around outside of those who didn't have enough Knightmares and a poor man's replacement was better than nothing in that slot.

"Sir Cranx's unit took some losses to a Light Tank ambush, but he managed to neutralize the assault. However what remains of his men are not able to break the defensive line separating him from Cornelia's forces with General Darlton."

The plan, however, had not gone off without a few hitches. Quite a few of them in fact.

The information Cornelia had received suggested the JLF had on them a fairly outdated set of weapons. Turrets, tanks, and a type of Knightmare designed from Glasgow's known as a Burai.

The Burai were better than a Glasgow, but it was still the weakest Knightmare of the field. The turrets and tanks were similarly under-upgraded from their counterparts seven years ago. They were better than the ones used by the Blood of the Samurai, but that was it.

However the JLF had another type of Knightmare, which was causing notable problems.

The display monitor of the battle flared up with two more ejections, emphasizing the part about problems.

There were only five of these knightmares, and despite the problems that they had caused she did not believe they were particularly advanced machinery like the Lancelot or even her sister's custom command unit, but the pilots of them were clearly talented enough as both warriors and as a team to make up for that.

Their intelligence had suggested that this might be Miracle Todoh and his Four Holy Swords: the ace pilots of the JLF.

They had been marked as potential problems, but they had proven to be even more trouble with their better than expected machines. As a result the initial thrust by Cornelia had been blunted, drawing weapons fire onto them.

The resulting cover allowed for better deployment of JLF soldiers and machines, and as a result the force had stabilized in a defensive perimeter that was holding.

It was not something she could see being held forever: but she somehow doubted it was a last stand.

"Identify any points that could be exploited for a break out."

The strategists looked at her in surprise for speaking up in a manner that wasn't a question, such as 'what is that reserve unit marked differently' and 'what are the odds of an attack from a relief force'.

"I'm not my sister, but even I can tell this isn't a permanent strategy for the JLF to be attempting. This isn't a siege they can just wait out. If I can see that they are going to try and organize a break out, it is pretty obvious."

"Yes your highness!"

Men scurrying in the aftermath of a declaration: her sister had always had it happen to her, but it wasn't really something she had ever experienced before.

Not like this.

It was an odd feeling.

...

"General Katase, the support personal have fully loaded the transports with everything we can salvage and the base is set for remote detonation. The Britannians will only get information out of our personal, and nothing from the base itself!"

He grunted in acknowledgement as he continued to watch the battle unfold, unease boiling in him like a brewing storm.

In truth, this was going better than it should have been. Had this battle even been a day earlier, they'd have not have Todoh or the Burai Kai. Those five machines were giving them a chance, but that was all it was.

He was an old cavalryman in the end, but he could see that this battle was not one that could be won by time. Time was their enemy just as the Britannians were.

Their only hope to win this battle by any definition would be creating a gap and escaping: capturing Cornelia was a possibility but even he wasn't sure of that.

He had taken to reading up on their new royal problem, and from what he read he could see her ordering her men to disregard her and win at the risk of her own life. She was not a coward like Clovis.

"We've still not opened a hole in the enemy lines that we can exploit. At best a few Knightmares could get out, but that won't work There has to be something..."

He stared at the battlefield for a moment, trying to think of something he could do.

He was an old cavalryman without a horse, but even one of those classical fools could understand a battle. Battles were decided by the most minute of things.

A brewing storm had saved Japan twice from the Mongols.

A dead enemy leader changed the entire battle's flow.

Sound, fire, water, wood, stone, untruths, lies: all elements that could and had decided battles beyond the scope of men and weapons.

"The explosives. Do we have any to spare?"

"I'll check at once sir!"

As one of his men darted off to verify, he returned to staring at the map with brewing emotions of hope and fear.

Tohdoh had created a miracle seven years ago. After seven years, they were due for another stroke of luck.

His greatest man was giving them an opening, they just needed a way to induce one.

If he could make it happen, he'd take it. If it came from someone else, so be it.

If aide came from Kyoto, that would do it.

If it came from another resistance force, that would do as well.

Though the only force left in Japan he could see pulling it off were the Black Knights, and what were the odds that they'd show up?

…

The Black Knights should have already won a battle that had begun yesterday.

He had planned it out quite nicely.

The tip from the Britannian reporter had been collaborated, he had obtained some excavator machines as to hit his enemies with a mountain, he'd get his men into a place they couldn't run from even if they wanted to, and then they'd strike the confused and disoriented Britannians and isolate Cornelia, such was his perfect plan.

He was not so thoughtful to think that he'd be the one to make everything go perfectly: that he'd capture his sister and get from her the truth. He was among the better of his pilots, but that was probably more from the fact he had actually used a Knightmare before Shinjuku.

Tamaki did not have a one in a million chance of surpassing him in skill one day. It was something more in the triple digits, maybe ninety-seven to one if he really tried.

Realistically Kallen would beat the crap out of Cornelia for him, which he could accept. As personally gratifying as it would be to personally defeat her in one on one combat and drag her guilt from her, he was aware that he had no business trying to punch Cornelia with or without a Knightmare.

There were things some people couldn't do: Shirley couldn't cook, Nina couldn't sing, and he had no business trying to beat Cornelia in a one on one fight unless he had a major advantage of some sort.

Perhaps if he had that white Knightmare he could possibly try punching her, but he did not have that menace.

Still that was a bit of a moot point: for whatever reason the attack of the Britannians had been delayed by a day, and the resulting additional surveillance had meant he didn't have the same options.

An entire Geass was now useless, and he had have equipment he could neither use nor give to Milly to appease her if necessary.

He'd also have to attack the Britannians in a way that was a tad too mundane, and he wouldn't have the advantage of wiping out a large chunk of the enemy with the earth itself.

Hiding behind a hill, he noted the set of Sutherlands that were guarding the flank.

They were generic models: not customized like that of the Pureblood units.

Pity, he'd have enjoyed meeting Orange and company again. Still, he was a realist in that he couldn't get to bruise Orange and capture Cornelia all in the same day, and the former was just fun.

The latter was revenge.

With his Burai, he gestured for some of his ground troops.

This would be their one opening shot.

They'd break the Britannian line, creating even more chaos than already was present from a tougher than expected JLF. They'd then find Cornelia.

With a pair of hisses the two rocket launchers fired: striking the Knightmares in front of them with explosive force and shattering them before their pilots could eject.

Their smoldering wrecks collapsed as the Burai and the Guren sped forward into the breach.

"Black Knights deploy in your squads! Attack the Britannians! Our objective is the Second Princess! Support the JLF where possible!"

That wasn't something he was quite happy about. The JLF were an element he had no control of, and they would compete with the Black Knights for resources and men.

If the organization was dissolved and absorbed into his own, he'd much prefer that. He liked having some matter of control of things.

When he didn't have control of things bad things happened.

The invasion of Japan, the Saitama debacle, his friends messing up in the kitchen: such things were horrible disasters that could only be rectified with him being in full control.

However the JLF still was the popular image of Japanese resistance, even after their reputation was sourced by the hotel jacking incident.

Deliberately letting them be destroyed for no visible reason beyond 'his ambitions' would make him very unpopular. Thus he had to allow them to act outside his designs, and that meant he had to put some effort into assisting them and not just defeating Cornelia.

A tank line that was firing up the mountain turned its turret in response to their Knightmare charge as the line of Knightmares he was leading charged.

He noted Kallen being ready to move to take them out, but he quickly countermanded.

"Save your fire power for better targets! Burai, fire!"

He was the first to shoot into the hull of the tank, and he was pleased to see that his aim had improved a bit.

The tanks still took a few long barrages before exploding however, and after the three in their immediate path were shattered they turned and began slashing into the other sides of the line.

This was supported by several infantry barrages and Kallen, who did in fact save the Guren's main offensive weapon and used slash harkens to slash through the gun barrel of a tank that was moving to fire on them.

It was the sort of aim that he wasn't quite capable of, if he had to be honest with himself.

The tank line began to retreat, and he was sure to have his troops continue to fire into them while continuing to advance.

Now to find Cornelia.

…

"Viceroy! The Black Knights have attacked our flank!"

She had managed to hear her sister's declaration as she managed to remove a Burai with a quick stab.

She had to delay her response by the barrage of fire from two others who were being covered by those upgraded Burai that were causing far too much trouble.

"What!?"

That was the last thing they needed!

"They struck from Alec's flank and took out the perimeter Sutherlands and broke the Tank line. Reports have it as a mixed Knightmare/Infantry force with Burai and one unknown Knightmare frame model, and it doesn't sound like one of the sort Tohdoh has!"

She avoided a missile launched from a JLF infantryman: piercing him with a slash harken before she got back to her sister.

"You informed first Alec first?"

She could almost hear her sister nod.

Good.

She changed the channel, knowing what she had to do.

"Darlton this is Cornelia. The Black Knights have meddled and are attacking Alec from his flank. Send forces to relieve him, and do not argue that I am the priority!"

"Affirmative."

She swerved out of the way of an attack by two of the Holy Swords, meeting a stab from a third with her own spear in a clatter of metal.

The buzzing the sword created damaged her spear though, and she could only growl in frustration.

These things were basically Sutherlands in the hands of a team like her own Glaston Knights, but they had weapons that cut rather like the Lancelot's M.V.S swords. That was quite vexing.

Almost as vexing as Zero was. Though she had the suspicion that he might not be the biggest issue today.

With the hell that those new Eleven machines were giving her, she had a feeling that this second unknown model could be another problem.

What the raids Zero had done on refrain dealers, and researching Shinjuku, had shown to her was a pilot with a preference with the color red who seemed to be Zero's best pilot, but as the previous piloting had been of a Glasgow the exact talent level of that pilot was hard to say.

Gottwald believed the pilot was dangerous, and she'd much appreciate not having Orange be right today or any day.

…

Someone had given the forces ahead of them the heads up, as a barrage of gunfire forced them to duck to the side.

He counter-fired: which the Britannian pilots above them dodged easily enough and seemed to recognize his command Burai and began firing at him.

He changed position again, laying counter fire both to try and score a hit on his own, and to create an opening.

The two Sutherlands didn't take many hits from him, but they were distracted enough to allow for barrages from Tamaki and Ohgi to force the pilots to eject.

A Gloucester charged down next, which avoided gun fire from all three of them, but a red shape slammed into it from the side before it could get too near them.

He could only grin at what he saw next: the full power of his own advanced Knightmare Frame in action as the Radiant Wave Surger began to cook the advanced mass production unit alive.

The pilot ejected before his weapon exploded, and Kallen's unit was baked in smoke and flames.

It was then quick to charge up the mountain at other Gloucesters and Sutherlands, who were already being harassed by JLF Burai and tanks.

"Zero, enemy reinforcements coming right at you!"

"Brace yourselves!"

He and his Burai took evasive actions as several Sutherlands began firing on them in mass.

One of the Knightmares on the edge was destroyed by a rocket launcher from the infantry who had given him the heads up, but that didn't stop the mass continuing to attack them.

The detonation of more Knightmares above them reminded him that Kallen was in fact busy, and would not be able to help them deal with these reinforcements.

Damn.

…

"Viceroy, the unknown machine is dangerous! I don't know what it's using, but it's tearing apart the enemy with some sort of claw weapon that makes the target explode. At least, that's the reports I'm getting from Alec's men."

That report, along with seeing another of her guard's Knightmares explode (fortunately again with the pilot escaping with his life), was really making Cornelia dislike this entire day so far.

She had no idea what sort of technology that was, other than some sort of microwave. The only thing she could think was that it was some sort of experimental close range specialized Knightmare.

She wasn't unaware of experiments in Britannia of such things: she knew there were developments for specialized close range and long ranged units in Area 8 under her brother Pyrrhus.

She herself preferred units that could prefer either role as needed, but experiments were necessary for growth and there were commanders under her who had an interest in such machines.

"Get the special unit on the line!"

At this point, listening to him wouldn't be any worse than what Zero and the JLF were doing.

"Oh, I was already called. Your sister has some initiative! What you appear to be dealing with is a Radiant Wave Surger: the invention of an old rival of mine named Rakshata. Very dangerous."

"That name doesn't sound like an Eleven's name."

Darlton chimed in, before the sound of him grunting and avoiding tank fire cut back in.

"You'd be correct. She'd from the Indian subcontinent, but don't ask me what part. I couldn't tell you if someone was from Newfoundland or Kentucky by their accent, so you think I'd notice that?! As to what her design might be doing all the way here, my guess is that the Indians are providing technical support to Area 11 in exchange for funds for their own independence from China. I do wish to show the superiority of my Lancelot, so please let us have a go at it?"

The idea of relying on either a number or that nutcase was not something she relished, but at this point she'd like to win.

At this point that would either be from working with an inferior and an irritator, or bombing the mountain to rubble and losing any evidence that a certain Kirihara was funding terrorism.

Pride and life were gambled in every battle, and at this point she'd have to gamble her pride a bit.

"Very well. Send Kuruugi to capture Zero, destroy that machine, and relieve General Alec!"

"Right-O!"

She'd pretend the next Burai she slashed apart was Lloyd Asplund.

…

The commanding Gloucester that Kallen was fighting wasn't Cornelia's.

It lacked her unit's horns, or the colors of her main subordinates Darlton or Guilford.

That was annoying; it meant that he had completely missed her flank in the battle.

He'd have to fight through at least one more third of the Britannians, which was going to be a difficult task.

Whoever it was, he battled against his best warrior on a field of warped and broken enemy Knightmares and JLF machines.

"Zero! The white Knightmare from Shinjuku is approaching you fast!"

He swore as the remaining Burai he had all turned towards the sound of shredded trees and flung earth.

Again!?

"Just hold him for a bit, I'm nearly done!"

He heard Kallen's claw grab something on the enemy, and with that he began firing at the visibly approaching menace.

The others followed suit, but as he suspected it was in vain and the white Knightmare burst into view and immediately went for him.

He considered it a decent showing of his skills in avoiding the resulting sword attack and the slash harken.

"Zero, this is General Katase of the Japan Liberation Front. One of your ground soldiers granted me access to your walkie. With your assault on General Alec's flank and Lt. Colonel Tohdoh's handling of Cornelia on the opposite end, you've cleared an evacuation route for us. My greatest thanks, and please cover our retreat. You look like you've got it under control."

General Alec was the name of the one Kallen killed. Good to know.

Also good to know that the good general didn't know what was now trying to skewer him like a kebab.

He had already lost half the Burai with him, but no pilots thankfully before Kallen was able to engage the thing.

Also he was on the entire opposite side from Cornelia!?

…

She had been informed by Kururugi about how he had arrived just moments before Alec was killed.

He was engaged with the enemy machine, which he had already compared to his own in power and speed, and was quite adamant that he'd be able to defeat it and capture Zero.

She would not hold a failure in that against him: it had been a bad day overall and failing against unknown factors was not something she believed in punishing soldiers over.

In hindsight she should have deployed the damn seventh generation frame earlier. She'd have hated winning like that, but she'd have probably spared the Empire a few towns of tax dollars if she had.

Alec would also be likely to still alive if she had done that.

"Viceroy, we're detecting evacuation from General Alec's former front! The Black Knights and the remaining JLF Burai are covering an evacuation!"

Dammit!

"Darlton, forget about me and Guilford entirely! Go assist Kururugi and what remain of Alec's men and stop the evacuation!"

"Princess…"

"And Guilford, no I will not evacuate! Do not treat me like one of your women!"

She was not one of Guilford's abundant younger sisters who needed their big brother to look after them.

She **was **the older sibling. Guinevere didn't count.

Said knight of hers was currently fending off the four Holy Swords with the remainder of her guard, while she herself was staring down their leader.

The so called 'Tohdoh of Miracles', though given what sort of menace he had been to her today she may have to drop the 'so called' part.

"You know Eleven, I'll give you this much. Your little group had actually been a challenge. I don't get that all that often, and I must admit I'm reminded of why I'm glad I don't."

There were people who looked for strong opponents to challenge them, and she could herself enjoy that.

However she was not unaware that for whatever relief and joy she'd get on finally besting them, that the amount of resources and men taken to get it would be severe.

Especially in the current situation.

"I'm so glad we can comply. After all, how much of what your empire can do is attributed to your brutalizing of our country and people? It would be a shame if we didn't at least give you a bit of a tough time for it."

The accent on the man was notable, and the tone was quite evident despite the accent.

A tone she disliked.

Their weapons clashed, though she took a deliberate step in angling her weapon as to deflect the chainsaw-like edge of Tohdoh's sword and deflect it to fire a slash harken.

Tohdoh dodged enough to avoid a fatal blow, but she still cut the metal of his machine quite sharply.

"Seeing as I do have your attention, a question. You were present at the Kururugi Shrine when my brother and sister were there, correct?"

She got the sense that her opponent was surprised at her question, and the slash harken she shot next landed a greater, but still not fatal, blow.

Their weapons clashed once more, and she once more took care to limit her contact with the cutting part of the blade as she pressed.

"Yeah, I remember them. Though if you wish to reminisce, might I suggest my former pupil."

Kururugi had been a student of Tohdoh as a child. How odd that people always seemed connected.

"Also I do hope you aren't trying to give yourself the moral high ground. I'll truly extend my apologies for the actions of a member of my own organization, and the deaths of two innocent children seven years ago, but my nation and people have suffered far more than your family has, all because of Britannia. Your nation spreads hatred and war wherever it goes, so I find it surprising that you take it so personally when it affects the people you love. Every member of the JLF has seen family starve, die, and worse at the hands of your empire!"

Despite the burst of anger that seemed to give her opponent a surge of strength, it was her that got the next decisive blow.

Tohdoh did manage to slice off the bottom of her non-weapon arm, but she in turn managed to stab through the arm holding her enemy's sword.

Both lost part of an arm, but her enemy was far more lost for it.

She could hear commotion from behind her, as if the other Holy Swords were going to save their commander, but Guilford would stop them.

The same with what sounded like a rising elevator for ground troops or whatever, sent from their attempt at escape to try and save the miracle maker.

They couldn't make a miracle today.

"You're no Zero, but your death will do nicely!"

With that, she slammed down with her lance, only to have to miss as a barrage came at her from behind.

Instinctively she threw her lance at the source, which pierced the tank that was blasting at her and shattered it.

More tanks continued to blast at her, a fact she couldn't focus on along with Tohdoh.

Just great.

…

Kallen had performed admirably: delaying the monster of a frame as he ordered a covering action and retreat among his troops.

He disliked not being able to push on to Cornelia, but with the state of his armored troops and his own estimates for the Guren's battery life and ammo load did not let himself see such a charge going well.

However a fault in the stone itself had sent Kallen tumbling down the side of a mountain, and the white monstrosity was now on him and currently cutting off his limbs.

He still had his legs, but he was not going to win with just the slash harken.

"Zero!"

The shout that came over his intercom was not one of his men, but it was one he recognized.

General Katase.

"We're about to detonate the base, and all our other units are retreating. Tohdoh is damaged but alive. Liberate Japan! I don't know who you really are, or what you want, but that is what I must ask you! Survive and free Japan! I'll trust Tohdoh to deal with any ulterior motives you may have!"

The last declaration was followed by that of a light tank that billowed out from an upper slope and down on the white Knightmare.

Treads clashed with the energy shield the thing used, but he didn't stick around.

"All Black Knights, retreat quickly! The base is about to go!"

He sped off, and he didn't see what happened next with the tank he was sure Katase was in.

However he heard the crinkling of metal, and soon the mountain itself shook.

…

In the end, they could both call the Battle of Narita a victory.

Japan could claim it a victory for having evacuated much of Narita successfully and inflicting fairly serious damage to the Britannian forces.

Britannia could claim the destruction of Narita base and the death of the JLF leader Katase.

The JLF had a more bitter victory pill to swallow than the Black Knights: his own organization had fewer casualties on average.

It was not the perfection he had envisioned Narita could be, but it was fine. Perfect was the enemy of good enough after all, and he had managed to gain valuable information on the capabilities of his own troops.

With the Guren Kallen could fight the white frame that had been giving them so much grief.

He had possible units that could go against Cornelia's elite if he could recruit the JLF remnants.

Everyone else had performed well enough, even himself.

As he returned to his home he found that he had been beaten back by a green haired witch.

She had a ponderous look on her face, and he was wondering what sort of witty remark she might have for him.

Or why she had a bowl of popcorn in hand, instead of the pizza she guzzled down constantly.

Perhaps she had some quip about 'not needing saving this time'. Or even 'well I guess I don't need to save you all the time, sometimes an old man in a tank can do it for me'.

He was ready for anything she might have to say.

"Your father is dead, as are your two eldest brothers."

…

She took a swipe of her popcorn as the show began.

Her contractor's face was contorting in shock: she would probably call the face he was making something like 'pug who discovered Picasso'.

"….No…..it cannot be…."

"But it is. They've been dead for about a week now."

She actually knew for a while and simply waited for where he'd earn the information: Marianne had been inconsolable for a few days but she had finally gotten to a point where she could talk and not merely emote utter ruin and depression.

Such dramatic reactions of sadness were something she suspected her son inherited from her, much like he inherited the dramatic tendencies of his paternal relatives.

He was currently doing 'caffeinated crab opening a wine bottle' now with his twitching hands and warped face.

"Who is responsible for robbing me of my revenge? Who!?"

"Should you really being declaring 'who' that loudly? Can't your sister hear you? She has very good hearing last time I checked."

She felt a bit robbed of her entertainment when he suddenly stopped making strange faces and hand gestures, or talking as loudly.

"I spent thousands of dollars soundproofing these rooms years ago. She was having trouble sleeping because any sound was too loud for her, with the creak of a floorboard at night being like gun fire, and that isn't with any reference to the trauma of such sounds. Sayoko and I tested the soundproofing ourselves with gunfire: Nunnally cannot hear me rant, monologue, or laugh."

With that point made his hilarious expressions and volume returned: she'd call the new one 'giraffe that ate a crate of lemons'.

"Who is responsible!?"

"They're still trying to figure it out. They were poisoned, but so far they haven't found the source of that specific poisoning yet. They have found about a half a dozen active poisoning plots at play in Pendragon at the time though, and it is entirely possible that one of them might have accidentally got them. It's hard to say if there was a seventh poisoning plot, or if someone got them by mistake."

Her source of pizza seemed to be struggling to control his hands at this point.

"Poison!? I was robbed by poison! Quite possibly by by-catch! "

"Poisoned cookies and tarts specifically. And yes, they were quite possibly caught in it like unwanted fish in a net."

"Baked goods! I was beaten to killing them by baked goods!"

"The great and mighty Zero bested by a cookie. Funny isn't it?"

Lelouch's head was now twitching erratically.

"No. It is not. It isn't funny! With the Emperor and Schneizel dead I only have Cornelia to interrogate! And if I must be utterly honest with myself, she's the least likely suspect! I can only imagine twenty-seven reasons for her to murder my mother. Just. Twenty. Seven!"

"What about Odysseus?"

Her newest partner was looking at her like she was Rivalz.

"What about him? He existed. He no longer exists. If he was going to murder someone, it would not have been my mother. Not then. So many avenues have been lost to death itself…."

To her disappointment, it appeared that her contractor was starting to calm down, or perhaps his rational thoughts were reasserting themselves as he was now merely in a thinking pose and not one that looked like he would start hitting his head against something.

"With Cornelia still in Area 11, that surely means that Guinevere sits on the throne. War is inevitable, and with that opportunity. Also risk...I must check the financials."

A bubble of irritation bubbled up in her, and she must admit it was a surprisingly intense bubble of irritation.

"I don't eat _that much _pizza."

He didn't even look at her as the boy pulled out a thick vanilla folder and reached for a laptop.

"You do, but that's actually not what I'm worried about. There are more financial concerns than just the accounts you have access too. Though I will have to ask that you consider not eating as much pizza going forward."

She returned his 'are you Rivalz' look to him for that.

"You could just get a job. Terrorism isn't a job, it's a hobby. Rivalz has a job."

"And I'm legally dead, unlike Rivalz. Though I suppose between the four of us here only Sayoko is legally alive."

With that he was fully engrossed with financials, and she was now quite bored.

And out of popcorn.

* * *

**ROYAL STATUS**

Cornelia Li Britannia: Has had a bit of a bad week.

Euphemia Li Britannia: No longer a person of interest in three regicides.

Hannes Gue Britannia: At Frozen Hell Prison. Was never going to be relevant to the story (Disney reference not intentional).

Guinevere De Britannia: Nearly started the worst possible civil war (Cornelia v Throne).

Carine Ne Britannia: Not guilty by means of preferring murder by guns, clubs, and swords.

**NON ROYAL STATUS**

Taizo Kirihara: More amused with himself than he probably should.

Bismarck Waldstein: Running after all leads, still sniffling a bit from that cold of his.

Nonette Enneagram: Not as mirthy as she could be at the moment.

Andreas Darlton: Quite happy to have a family of choice and not being related to crazies.

Gilbert Guilford: Author gave him a Lincoln Loud esc background to cover some early installment weirdness.

Todoh and the Four Holy Swords: JLF MVPs, get to keep their Burai Kai

General Alec: Exists only to be killed in most universes.

Kallen Kozuki/Stadfeld: Got to kill a bunch of things.

Orange: Doesn't get partially microwaved as part of his ascent into madness he had in canon.

Suzaku Kururugi: Underused in combat as a waste of taxpayer money: the responsible princess having owned up to this.

Tatewake Katese: Did a Urabe

Lloyd Asplund: Has yet to consciously realize he's got finite money for the Lancelot.

C.C: Amused.

Zero/Lelouch vi Britannia: Can claim victory in battle, and in his impromptu audition for a role on Ren and Stimpy or the Ace Attorney games.

Nunnally vi Britannia: Supposedly unable to hear her brother's rantings..

Fun fact: the Zygerri are a reference to another Code Geass idea I had (this is not my first time in the fandom, just a new idea put down): specifically a MHA x Code Geass story. The basics of the plot would start with a multiversal human trafficking group of Quirk users who travel to worlds with timelines so bad that they could easily get voluntary Japanese and others to go with them, so naturally Code Geass's areas are a very good recruiting ground for them.

The plot would have one of two directions. The first being a fight between the Zygerri and MHA heroes that lead to MHA characters stuck in the Code Geass universe.

The second would be a more indirect crossover where exposure to the MHA residing Zygerri unintentionally spreads Quirks into the Code Geass timeline, and things get Jojo part 4 all over the place (the first would most likely also have this, but as a later plot point.)

Perhaps when the Izu-Ju overhaul I have planned gets underway, I can possibly reference them in it. Though the Zygerri are probably not going to be a major player, if a player at all. Just a fun little reference.

The station of canon that often makes every battle in C.G the same but 'Lelouch wins more' have changed! I had asked about this with some others, and apparently having the Burai Kai on hand when Cornelia starts makes things a lot harder on her. Lelouch also couldn't quite do things as he wanted because of the extra day of attention and resulting time delay.

I'll admit I am not sure on how I wrote it, as I am more used to doing Pokemon battles these days. Feedback is welcome.

Anyway as a heads up, I probably won't be as fast on chapter 3 as this one.

Next time: Ashford students will be present, as will be Princes and Princesses.


	3. Guinevere Euphie Kallen Lulu Gabrielle

Time for chapter 3. Anyway with this chapter let's have fun with perspectives, rare P.O.V's, and things going bizarrely wrong for Lelouch even when things are going right.

Oh, and as a quick heads up shipping is something I do have thoughts on, but it isn't being actively implemented on.

Okay? Let's begin

* * *

She looked up as a person entered her personal chamber. She recognized the steps and relaxed a bit before returning to what she was looking at.

"Carine, good to see your back. My apologies for not being able to answer you right away: they had found the killer and I had to handle that."

Her younger sister's eyes flared up in fury at the reminder of that, though it was not anger placed at her.

"Wolves! Fucking wolves Guinevere! This was all about those stupid things!? They aren't even dogs but like, Glasglows to Sutherland pomerians and retrievers and…"

She let her sister rant a bit, as it was a sentiment shared.

After that sickeningly sweet Li Britannia mentioned the idea to the Knight of Nine their investigations had shifted, and a result had found the origin of that poison.

It had been the Duke of Alberta who had performed the deed, and he was just as horrified as they were at the regicide when Marrybell had dragged him before her throne.

His target had been the Minister of Environmental Policies: the two had been having a disagreement on the policy on wolf conservation and as a result the Minister had been a target for poisoning.

She didn't care for wolves or nature much at all, but she knew that when you put poison out you killed other things other than just the pest you wanted. The Duke's poisoning had gotten her brothers and father killed, and his sincere horror and shock had not spared him his life.

She had her revenge, though it was not yet satisfied in her heart yet.

Her sister was done insulting the wildlife, and had remembered what she was going to say.

"Dasko and I did some poking around at several military bases: knights circulated off the front lines and what not. Nothing too obvious, but they got the gist. Some interest in the positions, but if you want to do the overhaul quickly we'd have to find others. Do it slowly however..."

She nodded. It was expected, but no less frustrating.

"They all think I'm dumb. I'm not Schneizel, but I'm not stupid. I can see it in their eyes. I'm not Empress Guinevere, the 99th ruler of Britannia to them. I'm just a temporary regent until they find someone better. Bismarck, Nonette, Anya...more than a few ministers. They're replaceable, but we're not. We're royalty, and this throne is my right by being the eldest of us left."

Slowly was what should be done. Slowly fill in the Knights of the Round with people loyal to her who would keep her rights intact against the others. There were open slots: the Knight of Two, Five, Seven, Eight, Eleven, and even Thirteen if she wanted to dig that up.

However she didn't want to do slowly. She wanted it done now. She could feel them already looking over her younger siblings for someone they'd prefer, and she couldn't even get a read on what Rounds she wouldn't need to replace for treason because of how many weren't in the same hemisphere as they were right now.

Carine took a seat next to her, and her face seemed to have a flicker of humor to it.

"Well _you're_ irreplaceable Guinevere. I'm just the sixth Princess."

"Hardly. Also we should stop with that sixth Princess crap. Marrybell might be still alive and not looking at me like I'm a seat warmer, but she's no longer the Fifth Princess and isn't aiming to take the title back. It's a title that belongs to you now."

She gestured to what she had been reading, and Carine's eyes glazed over as she tried to comprehend it.

It had taken her a few hours to stop doing that as well, and then had come the tears.

"That's big."

"It is Carine, it is. It's our family tree, or what is left of it."

She'd call it a sheet of paper, but it was more of a scroll that covered the entire table. It was all well written and meticulously drawn: colors of gold glittering from it with all their names.

However so much of it was no longer gold, but a solid black.

Carine's face morphed into discomfort as she looked the entire thing over, as even without deep understanding of the names and histories she could get the message.

"That many of us are dead?"

She tapped the darkened names that had been her eldest brother, and then quickly hopped a tapping finger down to Schneizel and Clovis. She skipped over a few names to do so.

"This doesn't count cousins, as distant as they'd be after what father did to the rest of his family, but yes. It's royal custom for every consort to have at least two children. Some inevitably don't, but we have records of our father helping to bring two-hundred children into the world. There won't be any more as far as we can tell, though that could change in a month or so. With the arrest of Hannes..."

Both she and her sister had dark looks at hearing at remembering that thing's crimes.

"...and his removal from the succession there are only eighty-six children of Charles zi Britannia left. Some of them were actually killed by natural causes. I'm the first in line and by her reinstatement Marrybell is the last."

Carine's eyes moved along to the front, and surprise came over her.

"Odysseus and Schneizel had sisters? You had a brother?"

"...Yes..."

The room was quiet as Carine did not press that line of questioning further.

"So...any idea why there is such a gap between Cornelia and Euphemia? Ten years is the biggest gap I can see, and next one after that is Clovis and Laila, and I know why that was a thing. I've never heard the story behind the Li Britannias there."

There was a bigger gap than those two, but she knew the story about that one. It also wasn't really relevant right now.

"There isn't a story, just rumors. Let me just say that they are rumors I plan to blast out as loudly as possible if Cornelia thinks she can take my throne. Hell if she even leaves Area 11 without my permission I'll remind her that palace politics are just as dangerous as her Knightmare frames. Of course while she is in Area 11 she can't do anything to us. Zero, curse him for Clovis's murder, seems ready to keep her there while we clean house."

It was likely she would have to add more black to their family tree, as there would be others who though they could challenge her right to the throne from within her family.

In a way she almost welcomed it: a few of her siblings (most likely some of her brothers) would try to take her throne. With things in order in Pendragon she'd be able to crush them as examples and things would be calm after that.

She did not relish turning the eighty-six into something radically smaller: it would no be ideal for it to just be herself, Carine, and Marrybell. However whatever was necessary to keep her throne would be done.

She'd just prefer it only require turning their number to eighty instead of three.

"So while I was looking for new Knights of the Round, you have any luck here? Surely you had some time after the wolf freak was blood-eagled by a Knightmare?"

"...Sadly Bismarck just beheaded him instead, but a bit. Marrybell has no eyes for the throne. She just wanted back in the family, and that so called secret of hers would cause trouble if she tried. Some people, after all, have no better things to be up in arms about. We wouldn't even need to push it. Marrybell and Mrs. Marrybell ne Zevon won't try anything with their little Glinda Knights, though I can tell that if we try and poach members from them as Knights of the Round that would change."

"...Wait, they're married?! Who'd have thought Marrybell would be married first of us all?"

Carine was her closest sibling and sister, but she was not the smartest thing in the world. Though it was odd that the older of them had never been pushed to marry by their father.

"I was being sarcastic, though I'm sure it is possible in a few years. Maybe if we are done establishing order we can push them to admitting they have something more publicly, or funding their wedding as a reward for their royalty. What is the throne without some fun after all? Anyway, back on topic the Minister of Finances is definitely against us: something about our purchasing history..."

...

Among her considerations, she reflected as she took her position on the throne for court, was going to be marriage.

A marriage would be a means of stabilizing her rule, even if she'd get nothing from having multiple husbands.

It was annoying, but the simple fact was she couldn't have two-hundred children like her father could no matter how many spouses.

Along with loyal Knights of the Round and loyal Ministers, a loyal husband was another thing to consider, for both herself and Carine.

It wasn't really necessary to push Marrybell to have one. It would just create problems, and she could honestly probably get more by having 'Mrs. Marrybell' put back in control of the Zevon family than anyone else she could try and marry to Marrybell.

A man with the power to help stabilize her rule, and not attempt to steal her power from her, was something she'd have to keep an eye out for. Much like shopping.

Though that was later and court was now, with Carine at her side and one of the ministers walking up to her.

Minister Sierra Hornaday: a woman who looked like one of the warrior types that Cornelia or Luciano were fond of. Tall, muscular, and with a few visible scars on her arms and neck.

Though they were not from blades or bullets, but teeth and claws.

The Minister of Environmental Policies who had been targeted to start this entire mess had a very interesting life, much of it involving nature. For some reason the minister rather liked it.

She'd destroy anything that scarred her royal form like that herself.

"Lady Empress."

Her tone rang with it that subtle ringing that made her clench her fists. Another one of the ministers waiting to see someone take her throne from her.

Who did she want to see: Reginald? Cornelia? Castor and Pollux!?

"You wished to see me? Are there further incidents to discuss?"

"Yes. I'd like to keep an eye on any further incidents. After all one accidental regicide is enough. Tell me, what other royals might wish you dead?"

"Who fails to see the importance of nature in balance? Though if you are worried about my safety, fear not. Only the late Duke of Alberta would be the type to poison. The rest would use weapons. I can take care of myself and fulfill my duties to the Empire with our current financial support."

"A figure so magnetic to assassination is a problem. Constantly exploring assassination attempts takes up time and resources that could be used elsewhere. Tell me, what can be done to reduce the urges to assassinate one Minister of Environmental Policies besides a less controversial appointee?"

The woman's lip almost looked like a dog's if it was about to growl.

"Replacing me will not reduce conflict. Humans are born and strengthened in combat, as is nature. Conflict by humans over the present and future of nature is just as aggressive as any conflict within nature or humanity alone. If you replace me with someone more compliant to that of the agricultural sphere the naturalists will become the aggressors, and the hunters will not be happy. Someone who favors the naturalists will raise the ire of hunters or farmers. Farmers, naturalists, and hunters are equal parts partners and enemies, and there is little to ensure they are balanced and not trying to kill the others to protect their livelihoods and follow their ideals. Schneizel recognized that I could do this job early in his career as Prime Minister and I have remained at it for a reason, and it is not nepotism."

"Are you sure there isn't?"

Carine took over the questioning, and Sierra's silent snarl came her way.

"My family did not become nobles for our work. We are merely famous commoners, as much of an oxymoron that can be."

"Royal favor can lead to nepotism. Early in your tenure you earned the favor of Lacey Wek Britannia, and still have it. Surely Schneizel wasn't above being influenced by her pleas."

Princess Lacey Wek Britannia, forty-fourth in line to the throne. A girl who had fallen hard in love with the natural world, to the point that her guard was said to double as a fishing, hunting, and bird watching club among other such things.

Said guard had gotten more transfers to it than someone of her placement in the family.

The girl didn't like either her or Carine, and was a royal patron of many nature projects across the empire.

Sierra was looking at them in disbelief.

"She's _twelve. _If you are saying that she might have saved my hide at some point I won't deny that possibility, but I fear you are overestimating how much emotional pleas would affect Schneizel. The man was smart, but there was a reason animals distrusted him. Animals after all can tell a lot about a person at a glance people cannot, and if there were animals in this hall right now I suspect they'd be able to see just how paranoid you are. Do you fear a twelve year old?"

She stood from her throne, glaring down at the woman.

A soldier burst into the hall, interrupting them.

"Lady Emperor! Europe is launching simultaneous attacks across the Mediterranean coast! Landings are happening around New Carthage and Tripoli and a new offensive has started in Egypt! Communications are only just coming in!"

"What!?"

All thoughts of removing a threat to her power was out of her mind in a microsecond.

...

"The Viceroy wishes to extend a general request for active deployment for the Lancelot in all further conflicts in the Area 11 theater until further notice."

The level of professionalism she had to deliver that line in wasn't really her. Though it was hardly likely it was the case for anyone really.

Clovis could sound just as professional as she did as sub-Viceroy when he was Viceroy, and he was hardly that person off camera for one example.

"Oh excellent! It is about time that our dear Second Princess accepts that my machine is the best in the entire world. I mean who could compare to it: something made up that that European Clementine? Some guff from Area 8? She who must not be named!?"

Lord Asplund was being Lord Asplund again, and he promptly began being more so that very thing when his blue-haired assistant said the world Rakshata.

She tuned him out as her mind went elsewhere.

She was aware that this call was not something her sister liked doing. However her sister could admit when her initial plans hit unexpected snags like the 'red monstrosity from she who must not be named' currently being ranted about and take the steps to alleviate them.

"...Say, such important news as making use of her lord and savior in future battles should have been said by the Viceroy herself. Where is she anyway?"

The smile she made at the off-kilter lord hurt to force out.

"Is the Sub-Viceroy not an important enough person to pass on such information?"

"Nope."

The words, which popped out of the man's mouth like a bubble gum bubble, promptly got his ear seized by his assistant who began to forcefully explain why that was the fourth dumbest statement he had ever said.

She did not dwell on what could be statements three to one on that list as the statement honestly stung.

Despite what she could feel at times, or some people joked, she did actually do a fair amount of work. Not as much as Cornelia, but it was the point of her position.

The position was meant to train a person in how to run an Area on their own under the guidance of someone who did know how to do the task. Cornelia wasn't quite the best person for such mentoring: her sister herself was not even afraid of admitting that, but it was working out well enough.

However the sense that she didn't really have as much power as people might think, or even at times as much as she'd wish, was always there. It occasionally irritated her.

Usually when something came up to remind her of the glass ceiling of her power status.

Her own frustration, of course, was not the only frustration in the building today. Mostly it was from the military.

The Battle of Narita was a tactical victory for them, but the strategic victory belonged to Zero. The JLF were still out there, and mountains were always good at hiding rebellions.

Where they might surface next was anyone's guess, and it had every garrison of troops on alert. That wasn't even getting into the question of where Zero and the Black Knights were now.

That was just Area 11. Compared to other events going on, Narita was a highlight on the fact they could actually claim a victory.

Europe had launched amphibious assaults on the areas of North Africa that had been conquered: clearly seeking to relieve pressure on the active fronts in Morocco and Egypt.

The landings had been successful if being resisted well by their forces. It was mostly because the landings had managed to exploit a breakthrough opportunity that they had managed to completely retake New Carthage and were already pushing to fully re-conquer the EU member state of Tunisia.

The only reason that such an action wasn't being declared a complete disaster was because the newest member of the Knights of the Round: Gino Weinberg, had managed an orderly retreat that had saved many lives, though he had been injured severely in the process.

He was expected to recover without severe scaring, but she had heard talk that there was great concern that he might be scapegoated for the fall of Tunisia to the E.U if Bismarck wasn't actively working against it.

What intelligence they had on this attack was lacking. However from what she had heard before leaving to inform Camelot of recent decisions the attack was probably not a result of Europe knowing about the Emperor's death.

It was, however, a likely possibility the attack was accelerated upon picking up rumblings of _something _going on, and Europe was reaping the rewards of their bold assaults.

For it wasn't just opening up fronts that threatened to remove all Britannian territory bordering 'Mare Nostrum' that happened: shortly after new offensives opened up in the other two fronts the E.U was battling on.

There was an offensive into the Britannian forces in Southern Africa, and a new push in the Russian front against Euro Britannia.

The Euro Britannians would probably have the best of it, as they didn't have two distinct theaters to manage like Britannia proper had. The entire reason Euro Britannia existed, as she understood it, was that when the initial conquests of the Russian Far East clearly became a case of 'well you have the cold empty wastelands and forests, do you really want to march to Moscow through it?' the exiled nobles from the age of revolution said they would handle it themselves, and the Prime Minister before Schneizel let them at it on a whim as to get them out of Britannia proper and stop being a political force in the homeland.

Europe, as she understood it, was powered less by sakuradite and more by public opinion. For all the issues that a full democracy had, public opinion still mattered.

European resistance had scaled up the more 'important' the territory had been lost. There was more ferocity in protecting Timbuktu versus Lagos, she had been told as an example, and there was near-fanatical fighting to keep Britannian conquest of the Boer states in the south.

The landings were born from the loss of the 'important' territories on the coast, and with the success in liberating one of them that momentum could push Europe pretty far along before the public opinion cooled off.

A major loss could accelerate the process, but a lot could happen before such a loss could be inflicted, and even where it occurred could be a problem.

The Euro Britannians and regular Britannians were no longer as synced as they once had been. Much of what the Grand Duke had done differently were things she could actually say she preferred to what Britannia did (there were no Numbers in the Siberian conquests), but that did not make it easy for one side to see success by the other as a morale booster.

How the forces would react to the death of Schneizel, Odysseus, and her father were also different: she had heard some talk among Cornelia's captains that the Euro Britannians could use such news to become a fully independent nation, the morale boost they'd receive from doing that being the exact opposite effect on the African troops they had when they'd heard of the deaths in Pendragon.

It was why the Grand Duke had not been told yet, as to delay such a reaction as long as possible.

Further thoughts of another potential wrinkle in the empire left her mind as she spotted Suzaku.

The Warrant Officer who piloted the Lancelot seemed wrapped in his own thoughts as she sat, and the thoughts were what she could probably describe as broody and self-reflective.

Such thoughts could simply not do, so she sat down next to him.

He looked over to her and seemed to take a moment to recognize her and bolted upwards like a started cat.

"P…Princess Euphemia! I did not see you there, my apologies for not…"

She waved him off before the question of what someone 'should' do around her came up.

"I'm not surprised you did not notice me, you seemed lost in thought. What's troubling you?"

"N-…Nothing."

Suzaku was bad at lying.

She gave him a slight mothering look, the sort that she'd have seen Marianne use on Lelouch or Nunnally.

It had some effect, as Suzaku was now shifting with noticeable discomfort.

"It is nothing to trouble you with my lady. It's not a concern befitting a Princess."

She increased the potency of her look, and like what would happen with Lelouch under the same intensity the young pilot cracked.

"If you…really want to know. It's not really the sort of thing I should be feeling….but it's General Katase. I killed him….and that's hanging over me like a cloud."

He still looked like he was holding a lot back, but she didn't press him further as he continued at his current pace.

"I shouldn't be feeling that bad. He was a terrorist, he was dangerous, and he had killed innocent people as leader of the JLF. But…before the war, I knew him. Not well, not like Todoh-sensei, but he was at my house. He had dinner with my father and I a few times. I know he had this odd fondness for cheese I never understood. Killing him…."

She put a gentle hand on his shoulder as he seemed to choke on his words.

"You should be worried if you weren't feeling badly about that. The dead normally just have numbers, and I don't mean Numbers if you get what I mean. Putting a name to the dead makes any soldier uneasy. Trust me, I know quite a few soldiers. Anything you can give the dead form with makes their deaths worse. Katase died saving Zero, it was a good death for any soldier to save another regardless of what side they are on. Katase chose to sacrifice himself, perhaps that will help?"

She wasn't sure about that last part, but the rest of her words seemed to make Suzaku a bit more at ease.

The dead always had names, but it was always something different when you could put a name and a voice to them.

Other siblings of hers had died, but it was always the ones she knew that hurt the most. Just the same that Suzaku had likely killed others in Knightmare combat before, but Katase was the first time he could give such a soldier personality.

She removed her hand from his shoulder, and the young pilot seemed better now.

Perhaps he at least knew that such thoughts weren't treasonous or anything, but simply human nature.

"Warrant Officer Kururugi."

Both their attentions were drawn to a new pair entering the work space of Camelot: Jeremiah Gottwald and Villetta Nu.

"Oh, Princess Euphemia. My apologies for interrupting any conversation you two may have been having. We simply have a question for the young soldier for a private project of ours."

She looked at the former guard, though she liked to think her thoughts were kept hidden as she did so.

Whatever had happened with 'Orange' was still unclear. Jeremiah legitimately seemed to act like he had no memory of it, and they couldn't find any chink in his statements that could lead to uncovering a lie.

They knew that mention of Orange by Zero had driven him into complying with a bizarrely mad zeal, but afterwards it seemed like he had no memory of doing so.

It was just…odd.

Trying to find any information on what 'Orange' could be had led to murmurings of something Clovis had been doing called Code-R, and whatever Code-R was eluded them like the meaning of 'Orange'.

The closest theory to plausible they could come up, based on what little they had figured out (that Code-R had led to Shinjuku, and the canister that Zero had that apparently falsely had poison gas in it) was that it was some sort of top secret project that Clovis had been doing with fringe science.

More fringe than even cybernetics.

The possibility of mind manipulation had come up, and as ludicrous as it was it could explain what happened. But it was just a theory, and as a result Jeremiah was no longer a margrave.

Her sister was aware that he and Viletta were trying to investigate it themselves, and she had no objections. They were doing it on their own time, and what 'Orange' was in reality was a low priority behind Zero, the JLF, and now the succession.

That was likely what this was about, though given what had happened with the last 'investigation' they had done.

"It is no trouble, though if you have no objections I will be staying for any questions."

Suzaku and the Purebloods looked ready to protest, but she shot them all a flat look.

They did not need another false arrest.

They didn't argue, and Villetta was the first to speak after that.

"Well, if your highness wishes to oversee our questions we have no objections. It is nothing too severe. Tell me Kururugi, you attend Ashford Academy correct?"

He nodded nervously, and she had to admit she was curious.

Why were they asking about that? What could the Ashfords have to do with Code-R? Clovis had little contact with the family from all she had records of.

"Yes I do. I don't get the best grades, but I'm doing better than I expected I would."

"How familiar are you with the student body? Specifically with students who are male, with dark hair and lean builds?"

Suzaku's face was now marred with a concerned confusion with a hint that he was starting to get an idea of where they were going with their questions.

That made one of them anyway, as this was an odd question. She didn't move to stop the questions, if only out of curiosity of where the two were possibly going.

"Well there are a few of them with bodies like that….."

"How many were in Shinjuku that you questioned for potential casualties?"

A student in the Shinjuku bloodbath!?

Suzaku's face was now that of alarm, and it was no longer quite time to be passively observing.

She was there to intervene before the two could do something stupid again, and to protect Suzaku.

"It seems a bit odd that you'd care about that. The idea of a student being in all of that is horrifying, but I'm not sure how it is important."

Villeta looked back at her in a look of confidence.

"It is however. As has been well reported the Sutherland stolen by Zero during the battle was my own, and that I reported a similar memory gap as Lord Jeremiah. It was just less public in the ramifications. However I do have a single faint memory before that, and that was that of a male student in an Ashford Academy uniform. The student matches the description of what the Warrant Officer reported and was reported to not be among the causalities. We wish to question him."

That…was reasonable. She had heard talk that mentioning a certain color around Jeremiah would cause him to become very unhinged, but their reasoning was valid.

Two people who had no reason to have similar reasons reported seeing the same individual.

Suzaku was also not denying it, though the question was making him look far less comfortable than even Katase's death.

It was more than a bit worrying.

"You can't be thinking he's a terrorist. He was just there, trying not to die…."

"What is his name?!"

Jeremiah all but barked the question, and Suzaku flinched at the sound. He however, did not give up the information.

"Trust me, he cannot be a terrorist. He's a wet noodle of a person who couldn't overpower a five year old, let alone a trained soldier. He probably can't even get into a Knightmare frame without spraining himself…."

He was very much trying to change the subject, and it was something part of her said was very suspicious.

Suzaku had never tried to avoid anything like that before, from all she had seen and heard of him.

But yet, something about this was making parts of her brain spark like connecting circuits.

_Dark hair._

_Lean._

_Physically incompetent._

"Do not protect him! What is his name! He's working with Zero…."

"He would never work with someone who commits regicide!"

Suzaku's words came out in a quieter, but just as ferocious shout. An awkward silence came over the four of them, as Suzaku seemed to come to the idea he shouldn't have shouted that.

"…Is he your friend?"

She prodded him gently, if only to try and give him a reason for his secrecy.

He nodded.

"Yeah. Look, I get it. It's suspicious, but I don't want to cause him trouble. He's been very good to me since I started school. He stood up for me and made things a lot easier. I don't want to betray his trust. Honorary Britannians shouldn't cause trouble for real Britannians after all."

The last one was just parroted, and it was pretty obvious it was being used as shield. But not wanting to get his friend in trouble was commendable.

_Dark hair._

_Lean._

_Physically incompetent._

_Suzaku's friend._

"…If he's a Black Knight, you are defending terrorism. Do you want to be arrested again?"

Villeta pressed, if calmer than before.

"I don't want to give Zero another platform, so no. And…I'll be honest he's probably the most pro Black Knight person at Ashford. He seems to only think about the parts where they saved some of our mutual friends from the JLF, and not everything else. But there are no Black Knights at Ashford."

"…So he's a member of the school's student council like you are?"

Jeremiah took out a roll of paper out with a list of names, and Suzaku looked like he had just utterly screwed up.

The name list had names she recognized from the reports after the hotel incident: Millicent Ashford, Shirley Fennette, and Nina Einstein.

Suzaku's name was also there.

Other names included Rivalz Cardemonde, Kallen Stadtfeld, and Lelouch Lamperouge.

"I recall two of these names from reports of a pair of so called 'Chess Swindlers' that nobles would complain about. In fact, that would explain why they'd be out of class and in Shinjuku in the first place. So tell me, which of them has black hair: Rivalz Cardemonde or Lelouch Lamperouge!?"

_Dark hair._

_Lean._

_Physically incompetent._

_Suzaku's friend._

_Chess skills_

_Lelouch._

_Lamperouge._

The last name stuck out, and she wasn't sure why.

The first name shouldn't have, as there were many children named after Princes and Princesses, especially the first twenty.

Marianne's last name before marrying the Emperor was not Lamperouge. However for some reason the name did seem connected to her: perhaps a name of her non-Lamperouge parent.

Maybe it came up in a story between the time she was lost in a swamp and walked out only in boots she made from an Alligator in said swamp, and the story with the desert anarchists. She couldn't recall.

_Dark hair._

_Lean._

_Physically incompetent._

_Suzaku's friend._

_Chess skills_

_Lelouch._

_Lamperouge._

_Suzaku being sure he'd want nothing to do with a person guilty of regicide_

_Suzaku not wanting to say anything about him._

Thoughts foreign to what had come up were also starting to come into her mind now.

_Dark hair._

_Lean._

_Physically incompetent._

_Suzaku's friend._

_Chess skills_

_Lelouch._

_Lamperouge._

_Suzaku being sure he'd want nothing to do with a person guilty of regicide_

_Suzaku not wanting to say anything about him._

_Potentially being connected to the Black Knights._

_Her feeling like Zero was familiar._

_Saving student council members from the JLF._

_No others being near Jeremiah when he went nuts but Zero._

_Villetta only remembering seeing this Lelouch._

_Being in Shinjuku, and then out of Shinjuku by his own two feet._

_Suzaku being friends with Lelouch vi Britannia before the invasion._

_Suzaku was shot before he lost track of his friend._

_Friends get angry when other friends get shot, possibly enough to get revenge on the person held responsible (Clovis)._

_Revenge often spirals outwards and out of control into strange directions. _

_Costumes are strange._

_Ashfords._

Suddenly everything was clear.

"Suzaku can ask about what he was doing in Shinjuku. You don't need to do it."

She said the last part firmly, and she repeated it when the two Purebloods looked ready to question her.

"Wanting to uncover truth is noble, but tying everything together is a bit much. Plus if you start barging into an academy of noble children you will only cause complaints. Noble complaints about bothering children and chasing after chess gambling legends can wait until we at least only have one band of terrorists running about. Make sure this is your only lead, because your reasoning won't be enough to get Cornelia to authorize an arrest or not tear you a new one for causing an incident. It's evidence, but make sure it is tough as nails, if only for your own sake."

The two looked incredulous, but they didn't seem to want to argue further. Perhaps they could at least see Cornelia's reaction to their evidence in their minds and figured they'd need more.

Regardless they left, and Suzaku seemed to deflate a bit with the questions gone.

However she could tell he wasn't quite relaxed yet.

"Might want to tell your friend to stay on school grounds as much as possible. They mean well, but might as well spare him questions he'd rather avoid."

Suzaku nodded rapidly, and she was sure he was going to have a very serious conversation with Lelouch Lamperouge.

Or as she suspected he truly was, and Suzaku knew, the not dead Lelouch Vi Britannia.

And, as she was fairly certain of now, the true identity of Zero.

…

There was always gossip and talk at the Black Knights.

The question of who Zero was in reality often came up and was probably the most common source of gossip.

Some of the ideas were something she could actually buy: a former soldier from the war trying to make amends for his failures for example.

Others she couldn't buy, like the idea that Zero was actually a woman, or even one rumor that he was a half-blood like herself, but of the Japanese and Britannian royal families.

There was a trio who worked in the kitchen who were convinced that Zero's real name was Rai Britannia-Sumeragi, and she had no idea why.

However it had been reduced recently, and not just because of the feeling of victory for saving the JLF.

One of their number had stumbled upon a basement that had been untouched during conversion of the Britannian industrial settlements. Said basement had been unopened since before the war, and within it they had managed to find videos.

Videos of every Gundam series that had been produced in Japan before the invasion.

That had led to a lot of celebration and cheer, and more than a few tears.

When Britannia had invaded and decided they wanted to remove the concept of being Japanese from their home (and the world if possible), anything that would be considered part of their culture was destroyed.

Everything from their most ancient classics to modern creations was burned, and what could be preserved was considered utterly precious.

In many ghettos those who could recite stories about their gods and monsters were greatly important as storytellers to teach children (though she had once seen someone recite the story of Sailor Moon like it was an ancient epic), and it was said that Kyoto was actively working to preserve any book or media they could so it could be enjoyed by free generations in the future.

What works were there weren't clear, but there were occasional requests to keep an eye out for certain works that they didn't have, and Gundam was a name that was always there.

Along with a lot of classical books that always outnumbered things like Gundam: she had always gotten the impression that Kyoto had a preference for those over media like manga or anime but would protect it all the same.

Tamaki had once joked if they'd take Hentai. They'd have slapped him for it back in the cell days if it hadn't quickly became a legitimate question about the validity of porn as an art form.

But there was time before they could contact Kyoto about it, and as such it had been decided by the Zero-less Black Knights to hold a marathon of every series.

Some tried to say it was to make sure they still worked, but she knew they just wanted to see the various series again.

That had led to the introduction of a new question in the bigger question of Zero himself: they had arrived in a room that was determined to host the impromptu marathon to find a green haired woman with a popcorn machine and a cooler of drinks.

She had introduced herself as C.C, that she was Zero's accomplice, and that Zero was in planning mode and thus boring.

She had kept what the strange woman with golden eyes in the back of her mind as Black Knights filtered in and out of the room commenting on each Gundam series with cheers, boos, and more than a few juvenile popcorn fights that she had taken part in when Tamaki needed some butter on his face.

There had also been a weird argument that had sprung up when one of the newer Black Knights had brought up that Gundam would probably be in the public domain with the dissolving of the company that created it, meaning that anyone could make Gundam in the future and that Gojira x Gundam was a distinct possibility.

This had led to a surprisingly intense discussion if such a thing would be the greatest thing ever, or a cinematic atrocity worse than Britannian propaganda films in terms of respecting a person's intelligence and sensibilities.

However Zero then returned, and requested to see the leadership. That in turn had led to Tamaki being stupid.

"I'm telling you, I can't stop seeing it! Everyone else can see it too!"

"You mean like five of them do. Including that cute girl you like."

Inoue quipped back as Tamaki continued to flail.

"That doesn't mean we're wrong: he wears a mask! He has a code name! His Burai has a custom red crown on it! He's totally a Char wannabe!"

"I think the term you are looking for is Char clone."

Don't encourage him Sugiyama.

"Tamaki, you really are stretching it. Zero is a brilliant leader, but he's not an ace pilot. He even admits it so it isn't just us talking behind his back. Kallen's machine is red and she's an ace, does that make her a Char clone?"

"She's less of a Char clone, but he's still more Char than she ever was! Trust me, if we ever remove that mask of his he's probably going to be blond, he probably has some little sister somewhere whose either the reason he's doing the masked weirdo thing or she's his enemy in Britannia or something, and he's probably going to try and destroy the Earth!"

She whapped him on the back of the neck.

"And just how would he do that?! Think before you speak!"

"Probably a bit too late for that."

Their dumb conversation was interrupted by C.C, who was standing outside the office with an expression that looked like she was about to be very amused.

"Hey, what's the big idea you…"

"Turn A Gundam is the best series."

The woman stated this bluntly, which led Tamaki to seemingly forget all about Zero's requests and potential character motivations to start arguing with her how it was **not **the best Gundam series."

If it wasn't for Zero gesturing them inside his office they'd probably have just watched the two argue, and so left the two to their stupid argument and shut the door leaving it just them and Zero.

"….Yes, she is with me. I owe her my life, though she does seem to think that gives her the right to be a pain. Of course C.C isn't what I'm here for. Instead we have greater concerns."

Zero sounded legitimately worried about what he was going to say.

"What could possibly be the problem? Is Britannia sending reinforcements?"

Inoue had a decent guess of what it could be.

"That could be the case in the future, but right now things are in flux and where they will land is anyone's guess. The issue is that there is death in the royal family. The Emperor is dead, as are his eldest two sons."

A silence came over the room as they processed what was just said.

"How!?"

Yoshida's question was met by a shaking of Zero's head.

"I do not have exacts yet, but it appears to be an accident. No one set out to kill them that day, but in truth they are in fact dead. This has been sending shockwaves through the Empire's hierarchy, and it is why Narita occurred a day later than expected."

"Just a day? Seems a minor reaction…"

"Ohgi the men haven't even been dead for two weeks yet, and reactions take time. Especially with Guinevere De Britannia on the throne things will get far worse than just a days delay in a battle."

"Is she like Cornelia or something? Sorry, I don't care much about royals."

"No."

Zero didn't explain it any further, but the way he said no make it sound like that was all that needed to be said.

"I've heard my father describe her a few times. I always got the impression that she's like my stepmother."

"…That's not good."

Ohgi stated the obvious.

"The Empire is keeping it under wraps, and I'm cautious about how to handle the information. The simple fact is I have no idea what the royals have interest in taking the throne by force from Guinevere, and provoking a reaction is something I cannot predict the end results of. With how valuable sakuradite is Japan will get dragged into conflict: if not by a royal coup than by the Chinese smelling blood in the water and trying their luck. I'll leave it to you to decide how to spread the information among the troops. The full truth or a partial truth, whichever is best. Meanwhile I'm currently in the process of accumulating financial and material reserves to better handle any storm."

"So not just because of Tamaki's budget handling?"

"What about Tamaki and the budget Ohgi?"

Ohgi and Zero quickly began talking about how the budget had been handled: Zero getting notably flabbergasted.

Meanwhile Tamaki seemed unaware of the tongue lashing he'd soon be getting, as he was too busy arguing about the glory of Gundam Wing over Turn A Gundam.

Which was dumb, as G Gundam was the best.

…

When she had gotten back to Stadtfeld manor, she had taken to looking the royals up herself.

Truth be told, she really didn't care much about them. They were just enemies and monsters.

An artist who painted Shinjuku with innocent blood.

A warmonger who slaughtered Saitama to try and catch Zero.

A doll that was alive.

Most of the Japanese only cared that far. What happened elsewhere wasn't important to them, and with the state of their country she could understand perfectly.

But she was the best of the Black Knights, the one Zero counted on. She had to know what her enemies could be in the future, as to protect her people and Zero from them.

She hated her status, but it let her learn things that they couldn't as easily obtain.

It was an intelligence mission she was on, and she was certainly able to learn somethings quickly.

Though what she did learn…

"Oh fuck, you couldn't just keep it in your pants you fat freak!"

Who had two-hundred children!? That was assuming there weren't any royal bastards, and she would bet money there were.

Her jaw was agape at seeing the full list of his known spawn: with over half of them being dead even with the source saying that he and the two eldest of his living sons still lived.

If Arthur De Britannia was still alive, he'd have been older than Schneizel.

Who could keep track of even the living ones, let alone the dead ones?!

She didn't even know that Clovis had a little sister. Probably was just as much a monster as he was.

However she was fairly young, so she just ignored her royal portrait and moved to click another, which brought up a face that looked like a harder version of the first prince's, but with a massive mustache.

_Reginald Mer Britannia._

_4__th__ Prince of Britannia, 23 years old_

_Chief Admiral of the Britannian Navy_

_Viceroy of Area 10_

_Naval hero who destroyed the E.U navy at the battles of The Azores, Verde, and Congo Shore._

She frowned. This man could be a problem. A naval blockade of Japan could be catastrophic, even if they weren't in their current situation.

She clicked on a red-haired princess whose look reminded her more of Cornelia and less like that sister of hers.

_Igraine Mo Britannia_

_4__th__ Princess of Britannia, 16 years old_

_Margrave_

_A Sponsor of the Pureblood political movement_

_Currently stationed at California base_

She growled at the Pureblood mention.

Another one like those idiots?!

She might not care much for Honorary Britannians, but she had little fondness for the movement and would rather they just decay like an orange in the sun.

She moved the mouse down the marked black and colored images of the dead and living royals, wanting to click on the next royal: a Pyrrhus Hi Britannia.

However the sound of her stepmother laughing in the distance, and the voice of some unknown young man with her, made her angry.

Bitch!

Her rage made her miss her target, and her mouse soared past the 5th Prince and went several rungs down to a blacked out portrait and clicked it.

_Lelouch Vi Britannia_

_11__th__ Prince of Birtannia, 10 years old (at time of death)_

_Murdered by Elevens during the Second Pacific War_

_Body never found_

She could only stare at the little boy who was now looking back at her: in color his eyes and hair stood out.

She had seem them before, and quite frequently in fact.

"…The hell?!"

She stared at the little boy in the image, and he stared back at her with an expression of intelligence and superiority that was just familiar enough to bother.

"….Just a stupid coincidence. There's a Guinevere Ingraine Daddlebock in my English class, a Odyssia Cornelia Gunderbucket in the horse riding club, and a girl named Euphemia Nunnally Nuttastock a few years below in the…"

She stopped talking when she realized just what she said.

"The Nunnally part is surely a coincidence."

She clicked the Lelouch princeling, which changed the information displayed about him. She hadn't done it with the other two as she really had seen all she had to see about them with the first part. Surely a second click would disprove…

_Mother: Empress Marianne Vi Britannia (Deceased)_

_Sister: Nunnally Vi Britannia (Deceased)_

_Mother killed in terrorist attack that crippled and blinded Nunnally Vi Britannia._

_Sent to the Kururugi family in the then Japan: Prime Minister Genbu Kururugi._

"…Okay, so this dead prince has the same name, same sister, same injuries, and is tied to Kururugi, but that can't mean he's actually…."

She couldn't keep the argument up, as she felt like she was starting to lose brain cells trying.

"…Okay, someone's going to need to spill the beans about why they are dead but still walking around."

For once, she actually was looking forward to Ashford Academy tomorrow.

…

Her enthusiasm for the school was not watered down as she waited for a chance to talk to the dead person who wasn't dead.

She could almost feel Naoto looking at her with a knowing look as she kept seeing evidence that Britannians were not inherently evil, which was part of why he wanted her to get the education she could receive that he wasn't.

Even she had to admit most of the people here were just ignorant of everything and not directly responsible for injuring her people.

It was frustrating they didn't see anything as wrong, but it wasn't actively being done. Just passively.

Of course her education in anything with a vague flexibility of interpretation was as vapid as always. History was going over a non-Britannian topic in the Mongols, and she was certainly noticing an absence of reference to a certain set of storms that ended two separate invasions of Japan.

Biology had an entire lecture about how Britannian nobles were all bred to inherent better traits and to weed out inferior ones.

Britannian nobles were all full of hot air, even her father. He was just in a better way than most. She didn't need an entire lecture of how selective breeding made nobles better at giving long and loud dramatic speeches minutes after one proselytizing on how the freakish heights of some Britannians were another such improvement by eugenics.

Also she'd like to question the point of some of those so called 'better features'. There were certainly a number of traits she didn't inherit from her mom, and several of them could get very annoying.

The new recruits were certainly far less subtle than they thought they were…she was amazed Ohgi or Tamaki hadn't tanned any of their hides yet.

Britannian breeding in questionable traits into their nobility like what people had done with dogs like basset hounds and mastiffs aside, she eventually had time to go to the one place she'd be certain to find her target, and immediately had a question.

"Why does this place smell like bleach?"

It was clearly from a while ago, but she could still smell the solution. It seemed to be coming from the table.

"There was a mishap last night that has since been corrected. It surely won't happen again."

She could have seen herself saying that in the exact same tone, and it was odd that of all people it had come from Nunnally.

The dead Princess who was very much alive wasn't at the table, and her wrinkled up nose suggested it was because the bleach smell was even worse for her than the rest of them.

It was a tone she didn't realize the girl was capable of, and for some reason it made Nina wilt in her seat like a scolded dog.

Did the girl spill some chemicals last night in an experiment or something?

No one else in the room seemed to have an idea of what was going on and seemed just as confused as she was, so she took a seat and found herself half listening to prattle about school events, dormitory issues, and an apparent deficit of spare soap.

More of her attention was fixed on the dead Prince, who was busy with a large stack of papers that he seemed to be breezing through with little difficulty and a face of resolve versus boredom.

The papers didn't look like something council related.

"Yeah, he's been doing that all day, hasn't even said a word about the bleach. Not that anyone else has either…"

That was Milly, who was glancing at him from the side. He didn't seem to notice.

"…Um, buddy?"

Rivalz didn't have any more luck at stirring his attention.

"Hoh hoh hooooo!"

Everyone, but Lelouch, was looking at Suzaku after he did that laugh in horror, wondering how on earth someone made such a noise.

"The hell was that?!"

Rivalz apparently assumed that hell sounded like Skypeia.

She was pretty sure it was Skypeia. She wasn't the biggest fan of the series before Britannia and her memory wasn't the sharpest on it.

"It was a laugh from my favorite series before the invasion. Lelouch hates that laugh, and he hates it even more when I do it. It's odd he didn't just glare at me."

"Might need to try a couple of them until he reacts. Try the Foxy laugh that really bothered him."

Nunnally's reminder that she was in fact related to evil people aside, Milly for once de-escalated something.

"Pulling that…thing out from the darkest parts of your souls aside, I have a far better idea to snap dear Lulu out of his trance. One that doesn't scar us as much. Hem hem…so Nunnally tell me about that boy who gave you that letter today."

It was sudden, but suddenly Lelouch violently twitched like he was about to strangle something. He snapped the pencil he had in hand in half with more strength than she thought he had and was now looking at them with sharp focus.

"The hell?!"

Really, what just happened.

"Oh, little Lulu just does that if he ever thinks any boys are interested in his sister, or he hears about anyone bullying her. It's actually scary, even more so than the laughs that Suzaku can scar us with. So Lulu, now that we have your attention…"

Her Nii-san never did that. Was that just a _brother _thing?

"What about a letter!?"

"Oh nothing. I was just lying to get your attention. Now that we have it, what are you doing other than council work?"

Her eyes darted to her vice-president's stack of papers, than back to Lelouch.

"All the assignments this week."

He said as if it were a simple task.

"An entire school week…you can just ask for that? Better yet, why would you ask for that!?"

Rivalz's question was on point.

"I'll need to take the week off, and this makes the professors complain yes. The fact I'm actually bothering to do the work for a change probably helps."

"Do you need to exaggerate?"

He shrugged off Shirley's complaint, with the swimmer looking like she was connecting dots in her mind.

"You're going to go off gambling all week aren't you!"

The girl let out an angry gasp when he nodded in confirmation.

"That's against school rules!?"

"It needs to be done, so it shall be done."

"If you're in debt…"

Shirley's tone was one that had a lot more concern in it than she expected the girl wanted to at the idea of a gambling addict's gambling debt.

"Hardly. I never lose when the conditions are equal. In truth, I don't need the money."

"So you're bored. Perhaps you should just get a girlfriend?"

What was a prince to do with his time if he couldn't be shooting up innocent people after all? Clearly he filled that hole with gambling.

Said prince looked unamused at her snark, unlike a certain president.

"Yeah, hear that Shirley. That's the way to keep him from running off and gambling. The power of love."

Milly's teasing tone made Shirley resemble a steam vegetable.

"I don't need the money, but Ashford Academy's emergency funds does."

It seemed like only three people picked up the distinct shift that happened in the microseconds after Lelouch's statement.

Herself thanks to her resistance instincts and training.

Suzaku, whom was also military and she thought she heard that he had been trained by Tohdoh himself years ago.

And Nunnally.

All three of them were slightly braced for the resulting explosions.

"The _**hell **_are you trying to say?!"

Kallen had never heard Milly ever sound that angry, if not outright insulted, and it looked like she wasn't the only one.

Of the members who hadn't reacted in time, only Lelouch hadn't fallen out of their seat in shock at Milly's anger. Even he seemed taken aback, and his face was clearly an avatar of 'oh dear, that came out wrong.'

"I wasn't saying that the cat costumes came out of that budget or anything like. I phrased that badly, very badly. My apologies Milly. I'm adding to it, that's all."

He even sounded like he meant it, though Milly was still glaring at him.

Less so, and she was pretty sure the girl wasn't about to make it so she couldn't question an actually dead eleventh prince unlike earlier, but still so.

"So….um…Lelouch…any reason you feel like you we need more money for disasters and terrible things..."

Rivalz was trying to defuse the situation.

"Whispers right now, rumors and speculations. But ones I believe in and wish to ensure that we are prepared for."

Did he know that his father and brothers were as dead as Clovis?

"Nothing you might want to share? Do _enlighten _little old me?"

The Ashford heiress was still at least twenty percent in a fury.

"In private."

"This is about the surprise period swimsuit day fiasco last year, isn't it?"

Rivalz offered up another entry for the long list of odd Ashford things that she did not want to have explained to her.

Two just from today given the table still reeked of bleach.

"Er, Lelouch, I have a busy week at work. If it's that bad you can take my bike and I'll just hitch a ride, but you'll need someone to replace me."

While Lelouch nodded in appreciation, she couldn't help but ask.

"In doing what? Does it take two to gamble?"

"It actually does. Someone to win, and someone to butter up nobles to make them overconfident. It increases your winnings notably. You can also take the high-occupancy lanes and avoid traffic."

"Lelouch, are you sure it has to be you? It's not a good time."

Suzaku suddenly threw a new curveball into the ring, and Lelouch looked at him, then at the still annoyed Milly, then the concerned looking Nunnally, and then at Shirley as if he had only realized she might have taken his comment about noble buttering badly.

And not the way she was, which involved her imaging nobles coated in butter. The image was rather nauseating.

"Milly, Suzaku, Nunnally, you guys can actually keep secrets and lie. We can talk about it in private later."

"Hey!"

She'd have grinned at how clearly she could lie. No one knew that she wasn't some invalid without her student records after all.

…

About an hour later he tossed her a helmet, along with a set of hair styling supplies that she was well familiar with. He himself was wearing a blond wig and a pair of shades.

"This isn't really a Lady Stadtfeld thing, but a Kozuki-san thing. It is san right? You're almost capable of lying, so you're first up. Hope you like riding the side car."

She stared at him. That part about the honorific wasn't real; he got it perfectly right and was just questioning it as if to taunt her.

"The whole ill girl act would still work as most Britannians couldn't notice a disguise if they tried, but what you are actually like will be far better for increasing profits. You can tell me how much I'm over my head and mock me and we can make quite a bit of money that way. Fifty percent to the school, twenty percent to myself, and thirty to yourself work? And yes, you can put that money anywhere you'd like. I won't ask questions. Feed the poor or blow up soldiers, it's your call in the end."

As he walked off to start checking Rivalz's tires, she had to remind herself that she could not drive a motorcycle and the Black Knights would need the money so she couldn't just toss him off the highway.

Though she was going to enjoy seeing him squirm.

…

"Your ability to insult me was actually more profitable than expected."

It was an empty parking garage where they were after a few games, and all of their hands were carrying fairly heavy briefcases of money.

She was amazed the beanpole could carry both.

She had always heard the guy was good at chess, but she was still unsure of how he had managed some of those wins.

She had caught on to his tricks earlier than the nobles he was facing had: he seemed to like making them think they were winning and goading them on with their own egos and her commentary before turning around and crushing them utterly.

They never seemed to realize it, though to be fair she thought he was actually losing the first time.

It was by the third time she had actually noticed his tricks in play, and the last two matches had been just as fun to watch as they had been to insult Lelouch in.

"I'm nothing if not gracious, so would you like to stop somewhere on the way back? Ice cream perhaps, maybe a sale?"

"What about the truth Lelouch vi Britannia?"

She had deliberately waited for him to load the suitcases before she replied, mostly because that money would be a waste if he flung it off somewhere.

Seeing that Lelouch promptly spazzed out like she'd imagine Rivalz doing, it was a good call. The money could have flown out the window or into a windshield otherwise.

His expression was now on her like he had only just realized she was dangerous.

Had he forgotten her knife!?

She incidentally did not have it on her because of metal detectors, though given Lelouch's lack of musculature she was confident it would not be needed.

"Don't try to deny it. You're the same age, have the same sister at the same age, Ashford and Kururugi's too. Don't insult my intelligence. You were all but rubbing it in that you know I'm a Black Knight earlier, so I hope you can take it just as much as you give it."

He recovered from his rivalzing to look her square in the face.

"That was because you can only convince people who don't know what lies look like. That is of course most Britannians."

She looked him back, quite pleased to see just how rattled he still sounded.

"Yeah, that's why they didn't notice the dead guy hanging around. All it took was a simple internet search to find you out. I wasn't even trying!"

"So you just got lucky and randomly figured it out?"

His snark was back, and she growled at him.

"Don't think you can just 'I don't care' yourself out of this! I'm sure you were off telling Milly and Kururugi that your father and brothers are dead and the world's on a giant ticking time bomb before your family breaks everything and each other…"

"So you know that Nunnally and I are royalty and aren't dead. What are you going to do with that information?"

He cut her off, and she had no idea what he was going for.

"This is my questioning, not yours…"

"And yet you aren't asking questions. You were telling me that you know my secret. You weren't blackmailing me or threatening me. I'm sure you aren't going to do the same to Nunnally being a protector of the weak and helpless. So what, pray tell, are you going to do with this knowledge."

"Don't answer my questions with questions!"

"You aren't asking any."

He was so even in his tone it was infuriating.

"I can't even imagine what you'd want from me. Do you want years outdated information on Cornelia? I could offer that, but I'm not even sure she even still likes almond cake anymore. Do you want me to join the Black Knights? As to know quite well I don't care enough to do so and I'm sure your associates would trust me. I couldn't even tell you anything about the other royals you must have been looking up when you stumbled on me, as I only knew some of them closely and that count isn't even a large fraction of the ninety-seven imperial children still in the line of succession."

"It's eighty-six."

She said it like it was an actual rebuttal, but it left her feeling oddly empty.

As she was actually struggling to find a response.

"Really? It has been a while since I checked, and I was honestly looking more at the ones I actually considered dangerous. I hadn't checked the more easily assassinated ones at all in a while."

That one actually sounded genuine, and it was all the more infuriating.

"I mean nothing to Zero, so it is entirely possible that he knows that I'm still alive and just doesn't care. I mean all he'd get by killing me, and especially Nunnally, is looking like a jackass and a hypocrite."

The parking garage remained silent for a moment as the two of them stared at each other.

He was staring at her evenly and with seemingly little effort.

It was something she couldn't say about herself, as she had a lot of emotions bubbling around.

Anger at how this had went done.

Frustration at him still screwing with her.

Even a hint of her wondering just what she was actually expecting to get done here.

Other emotions and thoughts as well, but those were three fairly poignant ones among them.

"Lelouch Vi Britannia is legally dead. He died in the same invasion that supposedly killed Kozuku Kallen, and Lelouch Lamperouge and Kallen Stadtfeld live in their place. However you legally exist as the Stadtfeld heiress. I do not. You wonder why I don't care about things around me. You have to truly exist to care, and I'll be honest with you. In the years since the invasion I've lived an empty life, and I have little recourse to change that. I can't get a job because I don't legally exist, and the same goes for Nunnally. My father cast me out for acting like a confused and angry child. I had just lost my mother and seen my sister crippled, so I'd like to think that such a reaction was understandable. Not to him. I will not go back to his world, even after dying."

"A confused and angry child lashing out at her father. I can relate to that."

But she had been through the opposite of that. She had thrown many tantrums about what her name really was back then, though even now she wouldn't call them the same thing her parents had described them as.

"I don't care about most of the world. I've seen both ends of Britannia, and I saw the invasion's aftermath just as you surely have."

"That made you _not _care? Seeing people suffer makes me want to burn Britannia to the ground."

She changed course mid conversation.

"Hell you can care about your sister. You care about Kururugi of all people. You actually seem to like the rest of the student council. Why can you care about them, and not everyone else?!"

Her thoughts ran to the refrain dealers she had encountered not only as a Black Knight, but as a simple resistance fighter in Shinjuku.

Those people lacked the ability to care for anyone else. There was something missing in them that seemed to stare at you through their eyes when you questioned them about it.

Lelouch didn't have eyes like that. They didn't look at people like objects or something less than even that.

"It's an admirable trait that you can care about more than just those close to you. I was like that once. Years ago I was like that, back when my days were spent being chased around courtyards by Nunnally and my half sisters or beating most of my brothers in chess. My heart's too hard to do that anymore, and I can't even lay that at the feet of just Britannia. Our time with your prime minister wasn't exactly a shining example of sacred hospitality. My crippled sister and I were kept in a rather shabby shed."

"Then you have my half sisters and brothers and what they've gotten up to since then. Clovis was a frequent visitor who loved playing and losing chess to me, and he needs no introduction. Cornelia was the head of my mother's guard: quite suspicious wouldn't you agree. Perhaps she was covered in innocent blood long before she destroyed her first nation. Schneizel enjoyed beating me at chess and with his death I could never fix that. He speaks for himself. Even Orange was in my mother's guard. Nunally reminded me of that the other day, and I'm sure he needs no introduction either. I could really go on about anyone I had any relationship with back then, though if I must be honest Euphemia is still the same sweet girl she was back then far as I can tell."

"Fancy dolls rarely do anything but look pretty, so of course they don't change."

He actually look bothered by that description and was now glaring at her, which even seemed to surprise himself after a moment of his rather heated glare.

"Look at me: he's been dead for years but Lelouch Vi Britannia can't help but get angry when you insult his favorite half sister. Though back then it was always 'second favorite sister'. Somehow adding the half negates something to the compliment. Truth is, I'm amazed at how much they still matter to me deep down. I was at Shinjuku and saw Clovis's crimes first hand, but his death still bothered me far more than I had expected it would. He gave me lessons on architectural styles and I must admit I've felt pangs of sadness every time I've seen Dorian columns since he was killed. Cornelia is a walking encyclopedia of war crimes, but sometimes I see parents flying their children around in their arms like little air planes and I'm reminded when she used to do that with Nunnally, and I can't help but smile. I was too old for that, but I could list dozens of little things like that with her, and just as many for Nunnally. They are all small little nothings, but yet they won't go away no matter how many reports I read of burned cities and rampant corruption."

Emotion creeped into his tone as he described past sibling antics, and her memories were now starting to well up in response.

Memories of her and Naoto.

"Seeing as you claim to know everything about me, I'm sure you must know about my Nii-san. He's dead by Clovis, and your siblings might as well be dead to you. Even before Zero killed him, Clovis was already dead to you. Your brother was also killed by Clovis. Fuck, why am I being sympathetic to you?!"

"Because you can care about more things than I can. It's a good trait, and maybe I'm not so far removed from it as I like to think I am. But perhaps that is the problem."

Perhaps that was.

The real reason Lelouch Lamperouge wanted nothing to do with changing the world, was because the only way to do that would be killing a family he couldn't quite give up.

The Black Knights would kill Cornelia, and he just couldn't bring himself to be part of that.

She could have helped assassinate his mother and cripple his sister. She brutalized millions. She burned cities and was a living nightmare to two thirds of the world.

She was also, once upon a time, the doting big sister.

The drive home was just as quiet as she imagined, yet somehow less awkward than she had expected.

…

"Your sister was asking about you. The Viceroy is curious about where your body is, and seemed quite upset at the idea that Britannia…"

He held up his hand to silence the old man, glaring at him from an unmasked face.

"Please don't start. I've already had such things reminded to him recently, and I can only be reminded of a time when she was not a war criminal so many times before it starts adversely affecting me."

Things had been going well enough in the last few days: Kallen, Milly, and Nina had been fairly effective gambling partners and the money flow had been sufficient, and Shirley was to accompany him tomorrow which could be quite interesting.

Black Knight recruitment and training had been going well, and teachers hadn't been giving him stink eyes recently as he was actually doing more work than usual.

Of course the mood had been spoiled by Kallen's surprise discovery of his past, which he felt he had handled well.

In truth it was quite handelable after he realized she had no clear plan of what she'd actually do after catching him off guard with his birth name, though he would have appreciated not having his positive memories of Clovis and Cornelia dragged up.

Clovis's death screams were back in his nightmares now.

Then there was Suzaku revealing that purebloods were looking into him.

That was another thing he had to keep an eye out for, though his use of some of Milly's excess costumes and disguises was an easy enough measure to take against it.

They were looking for someone with black or blue hair after all, not a blond.

Of course that had come at the reveal of another possible problem.

Euphemia was also involved, and while he had to admit the idea of Euphie and Suzaku hanging out raised his hackles that was another potential problem.

The younger Li Britannia was almost unnaturally good at finding him during games of hide and seek, or tag, or anything in which she could come out of nowhere and jump on him all those years ago. The last thing he needed was her managing to figure out he was still alive.

He appreciated Suzaku's efforts to cover for him, and he doubted a single discussion was enough for her to figure him out. She had only seen him as Zero, and there was no way she could have deduced anything from that.

If Nunnally couldn't tell he was Zero, then Euphemia had no chance in hell of doing it.

Said conversation had also made him curious as to what Suzaku actually did in the military.

He had mentioned that he had been scheduled sessions with a military therapist due to a recent incident per official policies now applicable to himself, and he wondered if it had anything to do with Narita.

He'd have to look into that.

"The seed might have blossomed into a great threat to Britannia, but it still has roots it seems. I'll admit if you have reservations about killing family members I'm almost glad. If you were too willing I'd be concerned you were more like that ghastly Knight of Ten."

Kirihara had asked to talk to him in private in a barren wooden room.

A benefit of him being an old cliché was that there was far less around to potentially bug conversations. He could probably have checked for them, but Kirihara was trustworthy enough after seeing his face.

Had it been another Kyoto candidate, he'd have refused the offer to do it mask-less.

"During the conversation your fates came up, Cornelia appeared to have been distracted by something serious. Our spies have reported much unusual activity among the Britannian forces since that day, both here and abroad. We have yet to gather the reason for this, perhaps you might have that information?"

He nodded.

"I do. Emperor Charles Zi Britannia, Crown Prince Odysseus Eu Britannia, and Prime Minister Schneizel El Britannia are dead, and all died at the same time."

The look of utter shock on the old man's face made him briefly worried the man would have a heart attack over the shock.

"That changes everything. Britannia is vulnerable, both from outside and the inside. This is a golden moment."

"Japan will not be relinquished easily. Sakuradite will make this place a grand prize for either a claimant to Britannia or China. Your support will be crucial."

"Do you mean to Japan or to those who wish to exploit our people? Rest assured that I have little interest in being a Chinese puppet any more than I enjoy being under Britannia, though in the case of conflict coming here I'd suggest ensuring that Kyoto, the Black Knights, and Tohdoh's JLF forces are all on the same page."

Infighting was the death of any resistance movement and nothing would be worse than him and Tohdoh supporting two different factions of Britannia over Japan and weakening each other as a result.

"I'll give you my phone number if you need to contact me quickly. Now, is there anything that I can do to improve our cooperation? The Black Knights could probably steal some Sutherlands if you need to improve the Burai line's performance."

He had a few other things on his list of possibilities to discuss with Kyoto when it came to support after all, and he'd like to get through them.

Ever since the Saitama incident Sutherlands had been a bit more protected by Cornelia, but he could probably pull it off if he had to.

"That has never been the problem. If we needed to do that we'd have done it already. The problem is that Sutherlands have several component parts that are far more difficult to hide from Britannian authorities when procuring than what the Burai are made of. We can sneak a few advanced models in from India, but mass production in Japan is sadly beyond our power for anything at a Sutherland level, and that was the case even under Clovis to say nothing of someone who actually knows what to look for. It is something we've been looking into fixing however, and we are looking into possible mass production of Burai Kai in the future."

Well that was a bust.

"It was a reach, but better to ask than never to ask at all. Do let me know on any updates on the Burai Kai production if possible. Now is it possible for you to arrange a meeting for myself and Tohdoh?"

…

As much as she had said the reasons for it, she was surprised just how helpful the air outside of Pendragon had been for her health.

Since the death of her son she hadn't been in the best of health, and she didn't think it was because of anything in the air at Pendragon.

Or at the very least, nothing like car exhaust or that one Consort who really liked buffalo wings.

If anything in the air there was contributing to her ill health, it would be the miasma from the other consorts sensing her vulnerability with the death of the third prince.

It was probably more from shock: her Clovis was dead, and it still ached in her very being like a wound that she feared would never heal.

She wasn't even sure she should want it ever fully healed.

But she had another who needed her, whom she needed to stay alive for.

Said reason to live she could see in the distance: in the middle of the crystal clear lake on a fishing boat.

It was out there where Laila La Britannia was fishing, and she was nervous about it.

She looked like she was struggling with something.

"Should we get her? What if she gets pulled down and drowns?"

Beside her she couldn't see, but felt the motion of a head shaking from side to side in disagreement.

"She is wearing a life vest, and children must be allowed to grow and learn. Even fail from time to time. That is how they become who they have the potential to become. Plus I fear only one type of fish could kill her in this lake, and she's not using the right equipment for muskie."

She removed her eyes from her daughter to the woman besides her.

She should be more familiar with her than she was in reality. They had both been married to the same man, and had been for decades.

However the woman next to her wasn't.

She was a relatively average sized woman with black hair peppered with grey. She dressed well, but not in the style of the Britannian higher classes.

Her face was a different shape and her skin a different color than most of the others in Pendragon as well. A mark of her Mohawk heritage.

She was Kateri Ka Britannia, one of the longest serving of the imperial consorts. She was also one who hadn't been in court for years.

"My son tried to grow into something, and that just got him murdered by a lunatic."

Her depressed sigh honestly sounded pathetic, and a sign of weakness that she was sure would get her ruined in court.

Kateri didn't pounce on her with a predatory grin however, but sent her a sympathetic look.

"Better that you know your child's death was from their own initiative, than realizing that your own ambitions pushed them in that direction. Clovis wanted to be more than a painter and an artist, and it cost him everything. If you didn't push him down that path, than savior the knowledge."

Kateri said the last part bitterly, before reaching to her side and pulling up a squirming mass of flesh up onto her lap.

Said flesh, she noted, was one she had met a few times. A smiling little boy named…a name she couldn't pronounce Ka Britannia.

The 79th in line for the Britannian throne, after you took into account recent deaths. Three years of age.

Much too young to be Kateri's first child with the Emperor given her age and time married.

"I was one of the first to be married to Charles, back when he was just the heir apparent after the rest were done dying to their own ambitions and desires. Charles's father needed to shore things up, and I was the means of reforging ties with the Iroquois after they had been strained during the Emblem of Blood. Things were different then: he didn't have that dumb wig for one thing. I was the Marianne before Marianne, except I wasn't loved by Charles. He liked me certainly, but people are fools if they think he never loved any of his consorts. Or at least they are bad at seeing through Charles's masks. It was disliked because I wasn't European in descent: though my people have been Britannian longer than those who fled revolution in Germany and Austria and the like in swarms later. Ricardo von Britannia himself declares the Iroquois and other such as the Cherokee and Shawnee as true Britannians for our support against Washington's rebels after all."

Her expression became wistful as she stared off into the lake, off to where Laila looked like she was straining to bring up some monster from the depths of the lake.

"I wasn't cowed however, and in the end I had two wonderful children. David and Joseph Ka Britannia: though like their namesakes they had tribal names as well. Unlike little Skennenrahawi here, they were known by their more western names primarily."

Her sad tone made her not even question how you spelled that name.

"I had encouraged them to join the military. They weren't unwilling, but they had other ideals they wished to push. David wanted to be part of great building projects, feats of engineering that last for centuries. He actually designed this palace for me as a birthday present. Joseph had similar interests, but more in the construction of vehicles. I still have the motorbikes and other contraptions he built in the third garage. I was more than willing to help them, but I told them that military service would give them experience and prestige. It also would let me show my children as being better than the dullards that thought theirs were better because their ancestors had sacked Rome that one time. They both died taking Area 10 for the empire."

Tears were dancing in the pepper-haired woman's eyes.

"They weren't even front line soldiers, but they still died. They died with honor, but they died. They died because I pushed them to seek glory and prestige, to make them look better compared to the other royal children."

A loud exclamation came from the center of lake, and three sets of eyes came to see Laila in the distance.

Whatever she had pulled out of the lake was now at the end of a dancing line: flapping and fighting as her little girl shrieked with achievement and a little concern about what she was supposed to do now.

"They were already showing their worth, and didn't need my own insecurities pushing them to show it off more. I left that place of intrigue and hate after that, and it took me some time to sit and think, and think and sit. About everything. I could have stayed here at Longhouse Villa all the time, like you were with Warrick Villa. But I eventually knew I couldn't waste away doing that. It wouldn't be fair to my sons. So I got back into politics, but the ones around here. I got things done, I made things better. Some of those things were me making my children's dreams realities: for David I helped get that seaway project going and completed and in Joseph's name I helped start a vehicle manufactory company with several factories in the St. Lawrence River area. Other things were my own initiative with laws and regulations and what not. You can't wallow in your misery forever, and finding ways to make yourself busy again helps. It did with me, and it certainly caught Charles's attention when he came around here a few years ago."

She tapped the child whose name she couldn't pronounce as she said this as she chuckled.

"Man still had it, even if he could have lost some pounds. But hey, are any of us nubile maidens anymore?"

Hearing all of that made her feel better, and worry again about her physical condition. But still overall better.

"Though Charles took it to the other extreme than you and I do. The man couldn't see the forest through the trees, and he had his eye set on one piece of timber that makes him miss everything else. I feared he'd wake up one day and realize that over half his children had died and despair, though either fortunately or unfortunately that was not to be."

A splash came from the lake and Kateri shook her head.

"It seems your daughter is a catch and release type. Pity, as it sounded like a catfish. Still the cooks have plenty to eat, and I'm a little peckish…."

Suddenly loud bangs rang out through the nearby forest: the unmistakable sound of gunfire.

Out of the lake Laila ducked down in her canoe, while she made for cover.

Cover on the opposite end was taken by Kateri and her little boy, who was the only one of them not freaking out.

He was, however, confused at what just happened, especially as a second volley of gun fire went off in the woods.

Then a third, and a fourth, and a final fifth.

The seconds that came after that were long, and were only interrupted by a buzzing in from a communicator.

"This is Johnson. The intruder is dead."

Kateri pulled the communicator off her belt and was glaring at it as she replied.

"The hell was that?!"

"My Lady, two of the guards were patrolling on the southern perimeter when a car rolled up. They stopped the car, and were promptly fired on by the car's occupants. They took cover and fire was exchanged, which drew in additional guard attention, including myself. The additional guards managed to get the intruders by surprise, though were unable to capture any alive for questioning. Those we could have made suicide charges rather than being questioned."

"Who were they!?"

Who were they indeed? While she wasn't in court often, everyone knew that this lake was the residence of a wife of the Emperor who was not officially dead yet.

Who would be so bold to try and kill an imperial consort like that?

It wasn't unheard of, but it was very daring, and ominous given the current situation.

"Their uniforms are from the Purist faction my lady."

…

**ROYAL FAMILY**

**Count at start of chapter: 86 children of Charles Zi Britannia**

Guinevere De Britannia: Both smarter and dumber than we are crediting her for.

Carine Ne Britannia: The Number 2 to the above.

Lacey Wek Britannia: Fueling Guinevere's paranoia at age 12, unaware of this while she plays with hunting dogs and learns to cook venison.

Euphemia Li Britannia: Has figured it all out by about Episode 12.

Marianne Vi Britannia: Has a complicated history, missed her self-made alligator hide boots when they wore out.

Laila La Britannia: Currently fishing with success.

Gabrielle La Britannia: Still recovering but her remorse is somewhat handled. Struggling with Mohawk names.

Kateri Ka Britannia: Still feeling remorse, but fairly recovered.

Skennenrahawi Ka Britannia: Three years old and happily oblivious to everything,

**Count at end of chapter: 86 children of Charles Zi Britannia**

**NON ROYALS**

Grey Wolves: Farmer hatred of them led to death of Emperor and obvious heirs. This fact means nothing to them because they are wild animals and care less about politics than even the apolitical.

Duke of Alberta: Died in utter horror at whom he killed.

Sierra Hornaday: Aware that she's on thin ice, pushed more into the 'Anti-Guinevere' camp by Guinevere.

Lloyd Asplund: Still the Minister of the Church of the Holy Lancelot (membership 1).

Jeremiah Gottwald: Does not know Marianne's parents last names. He can angst on this later.

Viletta Nu: Showing off her lost potential as a detective.

Suzaku Kururugi: Angsting about the living and the dead right now.

C.C: Actually does like Turn A Gundam the most.

Shinichiro Tamaki: Formulating Zero's backstory based on Gundam logic: not completely wrong in several aspects.

Kallen Kozuki: Needs to work on formulating steps to her plans.

Zero/Lelouch Lamperouge/Lelouch Vi Britannia: Has had a bad week when it comes to his secret identities.

Milly Ashford: Actually got angry for once.

Nunnally Vi Britannia: Was more aware of Nina antics than in canon, worry be her

Taizo Kirihara: Basically had canon happen to him, but Tamaki didn't think Zero was a woman for a brief moment.

I'll be honest, I had not planned the exact identity of the cause of death for Charles and co early in story: as in truth who killed them wasn't narrative-wise important to me. However with a bit of Spacebattles talk thoughts on that came to mind, with the idea of them dying by a food allergy being fairly popular. However I eventually realized that even better than that was them dying by accident, with someone trying to poison someone else. Something about such a death is poetically interesting.

Similar thoughts came for the idea that Villetta and Jeremiah would still be investigating: I had honestly forgotten about that. Though the idea their attempts would lead to Euphemia realizing Lelouch is alive and Zero was my own take on the idea.

I have not seen Akito, though I'll admit that is more than a little based on the fact that Euro Britannia confuses me as a concept. But I think 'Britannia telling the old Nobility of Europe to go conquer Russia cold wastelands first for them and they did better than expected at it' is a decent way of explaining it in context of the clearly EU Russia in R1.

Also I'm sure you are wondering why I'm using clearly not real things like 'New Carthage' and 'Boer Republics'. The simple answer is that the alternate history in Code Geass means there should be some _very _different borders in the world, especially the Old World, than just China having notable sub-divisions and Russia being a bit smaller.

I have no problems with either of the two being cut up (I'm from Connecticut and thus don't trust either of them), but with how much has happened in our history I can't imagine so similar borders being the result of anything but questionable imagination.

Also normally it is fanon that Lamperouge is Marianne's maiden name. It's not a fanon I dislike or have issue with; even if it may be ascended fanon (I cannot keep track of LN's). However I had it not be the case here because if Jeremiah did not recognize it as such we'd have to question if he's been getting enough sleep or if he is only intelligent when he's at least five-sevenths mad.

Rai is probably counted among the 100+ dead or missing royals. What he actually is….well who knows. His status depends if I need him to exist or not.

The Gundam thing was probably dumb, but honestly I just wanted to make commentary about potential cultural causalities and ramifications of the invasion and decided to also have a few jokes about Zero as a Char Clone while I was at it.

As to the One Piece…it's an old joke from my Loop days that I think Suzaku is a giant One Piece fan. There is just so much you can dig into that idea that I decided to use it here.

Anyway curious how this will go. It got longer than I expected, but I like long chapters and this is in fact one with a few potential things held off for later.


	4. Lelouch, Cornelia, Azora, Marianne

Before I start chapter 4 time for two comments.

First to werwolffr: surprised you'd hate a guy whose been delayed from appearing a few times. Yeah the choice in chapters named for the P.O.V's means that ideas for him appearing in Chapters 2 and 3 were scrapped. That's also why, for example, V.V and Marianne have not appeared in story yet.

Who knows, maybe seeing him in person will change your mind. Or not. Er, as a warning I do myself have much less problems with 'blind social darwinism' versus 'racially motivated social darwinism' meaning that you will see characters be in favor of it with authorial enthusiasm behind it.

Second to Luckenhaft: if this thing ever gets a TV tropes page, your review must be in the funny section.

Also on the talk about Lelouch and J.Y.B's roles: the Black Knights wouldn't have context for dub voices. Britannia wouldn't dub anything.

Alright, now chapter.

….

He stared into the monitor as the screams of dying innocents and the sound of engulfing flames overtook a city.

It was a cacophony of horrors. A symphony of evil. A representation of unjust and wanton expansionism that served no purpose other than itself.

Its perpetrator was clear, and he had to sear it into his mind as to never let it be forgotten.

"_Who wants popsicles?!" _

"_Me! Me! Mommy hates them so she never has them in stock, but I love them! Thank you Cornelia!" _

Gah!

He stared more intently at the death and plain that originated from normally disconnected European servers (so linked in by Sayoko), when he felt a body come up behind his and look over his shoulder.

"Should I be concerned?"

He ignored C.C's question as he continued to tighten his focus.

"…No seriously, this is actually rather bizarre and more than a little unsettling. Lelouch, why are you staring at war crimes?"

"_Lelouch, you really should learn the sword. It is quite a princely art. I can tutor you myself, it will be no problem."_

"_The only sword I need is my mind. I will sharpen it to cut through anything. Plus Nunna will just steal any sword I have and run around with it, and that would be horrifying." _

"Because thanks to a certain someone, I need reminding of who my enemy is."

Damn it Kallen. Your half-baked plans were making it hard for him to forget who his family was.

It was Nunnally and his mother. Not his father, not Clovis, not Cornelia, not Euphemia…

"_Brother! I made cookies!"_

Gah!

He threw his head down on his keyboard, making the letters spell out some gibberish in protest.

"Ah yes, your sister who is now your enemy and prime suspect of your mother's murder in your eyes, if just for being the only one of the suspects still alive. You can't shake the sister part off so you can only see the part about her being your enemy. Through truly, what did you expect? You are, after all, Lelouch in spite of it all."

He looked up from his keyboard to stare blankly at the witch.

"The last thing I need is pointless philosophizing."

"No, I'm pretty sure I could think of several worse things for you right now…"

She reached over him and began typing in things into his browser: exiting the European channels for that of Britannia.

What popped up was.

_Crown Prince and Princess host Charity Ball for victims of California Fires: over 500 million raised_

A photo of a beamingly authentic Euphemia and Odysseus

"…"

"You gave up your last name of Vi Britannia, but you kept the name that your mother gave you. Lelouch. You didn't rename yourself to Larry or something logical. You kept a foot in the past, and now that foot is reminding you where you've been stepping."

Was that really it?

The past gave him purpose. It guided him to the revenge he would take on the world, the wrongs he would right. From that he would create the future in which Nunnally would be safe from harm and could live in happiness for the rest of her days.

She could even find a love he could trust with her to ensure that happiness. Perhaps Suzaku.

He could probably trust Rivalz with her; he'd just have to kill the problematic parts of his family first. Rivalz would hardly complain about his father being dead after all.

"_Oh we get to sleep over with Euphie tonight! Yay! Thank you termites for eating our palace up!" _

"_Nunna, I think you just said a sentence that was never previously uttered by another human being." _

_"Yay!" _

But it was also a weakness. A weakness that made him vulnerable to the humanization of his enemies from the depths of his mind and heart.

"_Who do you think you are? You're just a girl, while I'm an Imperial Consort to the Emperor…" _

"_I'm actually descended from both the Emperor and an Empress who ruled Britannia. Now step away from the Vi Britannia Prince this instant! I am the head of their guard!"_

Aspects of humanity itself that were resistant to being tamed by even the most iron of wills.

"In battle many things are pushed to the side by the needs of life. I'll be able to remember just who Cornelia is to myself and the world now then, and not what she once was years ago. That being said, you call my humanity a weakness? You take it to an opposite extreme do you not? C.C is hardly the name of a human being."

And she was certainly a human. Cats didn't eat as much pizza as she did after all, nor did they know how to charge his credit cards.

Arthur was happy with canned meat and Suzaku's hand.

He looked over to his partner, who was smiling at him in something almost like sadness.

"Do you know why snow is white? It's because it has forgotten what color it is."

"Snow is white because it repels all other colors."

His scientific quip almost made C.C pout at him. It was now quite worth doing all of that homework for a change.

"I've lived a life that makes me wish to repel many things from me. Speaking of which, I will be repelling your color from my bed tonight, so enjoy the couch or the floor or something."

She turned away from him and left, and he returned to his thoughts.

White repelled colors, while black was the absorption of all colors. As the head of the Black Knights, perhaps it was fitting he absorbed everything.

All the fond memories of his siblings, and the knowledge that the only ones of them among the eighty-six in the family that weren't evil were most of the babies and Euphemia, if he had to be honest.

He'd try and absorb some more, but if he was going to have to get comfortable out of his bed he'd need some time first to make the couch suitable again.

Damn witch. One of these days Nunnally would probably notice you were still here and she'd be very confused.

Or worse.

…

Unlike most people in the world, a talk with her accountant was not something that made her nervous.

It was privileges of her royal blood that she had never quite realized until she had seen one of her soldiers break down into tears after a call was made following one of the economic bubbles a few years ago.

It had made her angry when she had realized just how long Guinevere had been questioning the poor man and she had yet another reason to support anyone else's buttocks in power than her elder sister's, but not nervous.

Said call had confirmed, with a bit of checking, that she could indeed take over the funding of Camelot from Schneizel. That was what she was going to be informing the man about, as well as the fact that said patron was dead for just over two weeks at this point.

They still had that fact under wraps to the general public, and she had no idea how long they could keep that. She was not an expert of civilian governing after all, nor on propaganda.

Ideally they'd accept the change in patrons, and with that expectations. She and Schneizel had different goals in technology and while she'd let them finish any projects with major progress to them they would be expected to move in the directions she wished them.

She was prepared for this to go wrong however: the genius of a certain Lord Asplund was as great as his irregularity and nonsense as a human being. The possibility of him running off what may the world's most powerful weapon in Lancelot to another royal was quit real, leaving her to figure out what to do about Zero's machine.

She could manage it, but it would take far more casualties and resources to do, and that was without even considering the possibility of her facing the thing.

Having seen the results of being hit with a technologically superior machine via her men at Narita, she'd rather not have the ability to experience it again.

That was what the rest of the world was supposed to feel when Britannia came at them, not the other way around!

Guilford had even brought up the possibility of Zero swaying them to his side, which should be impossible for any sane Britannian.

But it was Lord Asplund…

She turned a corner towards their workshop, and found herself staring at a massive crate.

One that was clearly being lifted by a person, but she couldn't even fathom how.

The box looked like it weighed more than Darlton, and was about as tall as him.

"Oh, excuse me. After you."

"Kururugi, what on earth are you doing?!"

Looking down she could actually notice the warrant officer's legs, but that still didn't explain how he was carrying the box at all.

It shouldn't be humanely possible, and despite what some may joke being an Eleven did not make the pilot not human.

Elevens were just lesser humans, and thus should not be lifting boxes that large without trembling or even breathing heavily!

"Oh, they needed a box for some experiments with something called the float system. Miniaturization or something like that. I went to get the parts they needed. I couldn't find a forklift, so I improvized."

So you just carried the box of heavy parts you'd need a forklift for?

"If you apply for workman's comp for back injuries, I will deny you."

Kururugi responded to her flat tone with genuine confusion and honesty.

"Why would I need to ask for that? I'm not doing anything dangerous."

With that he gestured with the massive box, like hand signals on a car.

She obliged and walked ahead of them into the irregular unit's hanger. She then stepped to the side, and, with a pointed look at the two heads of development, pointed at the impossible physical feat being performed by their pilot.

"Oh yes, he is quite an essential part to the Lancelot isn't he? No one quite like him anywhere you'd look."

That was the response from the crazy one, so she turned to the one who didn't need medication.

Said Croomy shrugged.

"I don't know how he does it, but he does. He once lifted the Lancelot's foot after a chip slid under it. I can say that it isn't from steroids at least."

The clean warrant officer dropped the crate a bit away from a workbench, shaking the facility a bit.

"And no, before you ask I am fairly certain he isn't a stranger from a destroyed planet rocketed to earth as a baby, or a demigod child of some pagan goddess running around the place like some modern Cú Chulainn or Hercules."

She was not going to, and both Kururugi and Croomy were looking at said inventor with astonishment for suggesting such a thing.

"I don't get why you'd ever think that?"

The warrant officer was clearly clueless, and the question of what was up with him was not important.

"The secret origins of the warrant officer's physical abilities are not why I'm here today. Instead it is to inform you of ongoing alterations to your mandate. Kururugi, this is above your pay grade."

It was that, and in all honestly foolish to let him know.

Soldiers from the area conquered were a terrible idea in general to have in your military: she could not with a straight face even begin to say that the people they had conquered had no reason to stab them in the back.

Her army had many mixed blood members, but they were never Numbers. Haflboods and quarter bloods and other mixtures.

Even a fourth/nineteenths blood, and she had no idea how that worked out. All she knew was the guy had the paperwork to prove it and liked to tell the story at bars to pick up women which somehow worked.

They were part of Britannia, as much as some would scoff at it. Or many for that matter.

Kururugi had shown himself to be loyal enough, but that was just enough that she wouldn't force him out of the Lancelot. The machine was one of those overly specialized ones that would struggle in the hands of even the best pilots otherwise, and her distrust of his origins was not worth the decrease in performance she'd get putting herself or Guilford in it instead.

However there was no reason to trust him blindly.

Said warrant officer obliged and left the way he came, and she did in fact hear him walking off and not lingering behind walls to listen in.

Therefore she looked the two inventors in the eye, and information that seemed to always need to be repeated came out of her mouth.

…

There was nothing like a long hot bath to start your day, and with the privilege that came with talent and hard work you could reap the rewards.

Such rewards included a bath that could actually fit your person, allowing yourself the joy of submerging completely in steamy hot water.

Perhaps she was just compensating for the fifteen years of her life in which she didn't have such luxuries. No warm water and very few bathtubs.

Certainly not one who could fit her after very long: there was little that she had of her father, and what couple of things he had left her made her life more complicated.

She was a half-blood, but when it came to her physical appearance the only things that her Britannian father had left her was the height of a Britannian (which had made getting her clothing or using the bathtubs of her childhood home very difficult) and the proportions of one.

When she was a child she had been stared at as a tall hybrid from their brutal overlords, and as a teenager she was a tall hybrid who was also sexy and was stared at even more.

That was all she got of her father. Her mother at least apparently had a nice night first.

Poverty, distrust, and not belonging anywhere was her life for fifteen years, until the fateful day she first met the then new viceroy Pyrrhus Hi Britannia.

Then just sixteen years old.

_It had been a rainy night, and the roads had been slick and treacherous. _

_All vehicles had been swerving, but she had been keeping the truck she had been driving more stable than most. _

_Cars had been swiveling across lanes and many nearly went off the road entirely before they sharply regained control. A few did go off the road. _

_She had avoided all issues before then, and it was imperative that she had to keep doing so. _

_Her truck had necessary supplies for her village. She might have never quite fit in, but it did not mean she wouldn't ensure that they had food and medical supplies._

_However eventually a convoy of cars going the opposite way as her had struggled on the road and swerved towards her truck. _

_She had avoided the swerving just as she had all the time, and the first car had spun off the road and into a ditch. _

_She had never stopped in such situations before: each situation before had been something that could be solved with a gear change and the reverse direction. Also the drivers tended to be Britannians, and they did not like Eights helping them. _

_However this time one of the cars of the convoy had shot at her car in the aftermath, and the bullet to the tire had nearly sent her truck spiraling off the highway and probably tipping itself over. _

_It had taken all of her skill to avoid that, and her reward for such skillful driving was standing out in the rain while a dozen armed Britannian guards were shouting at her for threatening their convoy with their bad driving. _

_Her life was flashing through her eyes as she couldn't imagine how she could possibly point out that her driving hadn't been at fault without being killed faster. _

"_Clearly we have different definitions of bad driving guard captain." _

_A Britannian accent with aristocratic tones shot through the rainy night: silencing the guards and making them turn around in shock. _

_It was at their movement that she saw the man who'd change her life forever for the first time. _

"_Ll..Lord Pyrrhus…." _

_The newly appointed Viceroy was a young man of sixteen, whose build was that of a handsome prince versus that of a warrior prince like that of the Crown Prince or Emperor: being more akin to what she had seen of the Third Prince Clovis. His hair reminded her of the color of fiery embers, with eyes of imperial purple. _

_He was also perhaps the first person near her age who ever was taller than her. _

_He was holding an umbrella over his head, which was perhaps the first time she had ever seen a noble do such a thing themselves._

"_Now, I could be mistaken, but it wasn't her who could barely control the car. That was on our own end, not hers. She did everything right."_

"_But My Lord!"_

"_Tell me, what were you even thinking you'd accomplish by shooting at her truck? You've created worse traffic and a more dangerous situation, and are delaying us even more than what it would have taken if you hadn't punished the person who was doing things correctly. When I was given this job I was told that Area 8 had problems, I was not told that it was because the people operating it were absolute fools who can't think beyond base impulses of anger." _

_"My Lord she's just an Eight! What's she even doing driving a truck in the first place. She'd probably a terrorist!" _

"_And if she is, she's a better driver than the ones we have in car one, two, four, and seven. Perhaps she can take one of their jobs if she'd out of one after you wrecked her truck for no good reason. After all guard, all men aren't created equal. We should remember that such a statement includes Britannians. Now perhaps you could go help the guards in three, five, and six actually do something productive and push car one back onto the road?" _

_The guards looked ready to protest, but they went without a word as he waked up to her. _

_She felt a lack of rain assaulting her head as he moved his umbrella to cover both of them. _

"_My greatest apologies miss. I haven't had time to purge the former administration properly yet: in truth you need to see whose competent first before you clean house. I haven't seen much of that yet truth be told. Of course seeing your skills at driving, perhaps I have seen a potential replacement for the necessary purging.." _

_She had blushed in astonishment at that, on top of seeing just how handsome he was up close. _

"_But I'm a half blood sir that would be…" _

"_Half blood? Well that makes things even easier. Then they can't even say you have no place in a Britannian facility at all. I want to make Britannia truly be itself, and not some nonsensical parody. Britannian after all should represent talent, not skin color or language. You call yourself only half, but you have more Britannian in you than most of those wastes of resources over there. Trust me, I'm a royal. I know what wastes of resources look like."_

…

_It was less than a week after that when they had found she had an even better talent than just driving. _

_Pyrrhus had arranged for the contents she had been shipping to be delivered to her village, with additional materials as an apology for his former guard's actions. _

_He had taken her to a hanger, at which a very different machine than a truck was waiting. _

_It was taller than her previous vehicle, though far less in length. It was a humanoid machine of war. _

"_You don't see a ton of them around here, but I have ideas going forward. This is a Glasgow: a Knightmare frame. Why not give it a try?" _

She had, and her career path had forever changed.

She was no longer Azora Azevedo the half-blood truck driver and outcast.

She was Azora Azevedo, the ace of Pyrrhus Hi Britannia's personal forces. A knight of honor in all but title, but that would change soon.

The Empire was going to enter a civil war sooner rather than later, and the sparks were already being lit as they spoke. They themselves wouldn't start it, but they would use the war to burn away the excess nonsense of Britannia and have it be reborn as the state it should have always been.

A nation where the best truly were on top regardless of whom they were.

"This is Vulcan Ford: the refitting to the Robin is nearly completion. Please prepare for the testing of the new model of landspinners."

She sighed in frustration as she pushed out of her steaming bath.

Why was it that people always needed her attention when she was bathing? That was an annoying trend.

It was why her baths had speaker rocks in them so people would stop barging in on her.

That had gotten quite old quite fast.

She was also sure she'd have at least another half hour before the things were ready, but Vulcan had gotten his position for good designing and upgrading and not because of any noble titles so he moved faster than she expected.

Oh well. As much as she loved baths, business came first. Knightmares were also quite fun, even if in a different way from baths.

…

Vulcan Ford was an engineer scooped up from a lower-end university by Lord Pyrrhus.

He specialized in the construction of wheels, and worked notably on landspinner technology.

Sand panels had been improved by the man for Cornelia's campaign in the deserts of the Middle East.

"With thith new dethign for the landthpinner on our mathineth going forward we thhould thee thpeed increathe by twenty-four perthent while operating on previouthly difficult terrain with thixty-theven perthent more efficiency. Upon thith final tetht our exithting mathineth thhall be upgraded while all future modelth will be built with them going forward."

He had a bit of a lisp, but she understand him well enough as she prepared her machine for the test.

Perhaps that had been a bit of a mistitling. She had tested out most of the machines that Pyrrhus had built: only a few of the prototypes had been too specialized for her and had fallen to other pilots under Pyrrhus's command.

However the current machine was one that she had a particular familiarity with, and Pyrhhus had suggested she take it as her personal machine in the battles to come.

The Robin was a tall eggshell-blue Knightmare with a thin body: leaner in build than the Gloucester or Sutherland. Its left arm was also notably atypical, as it was a single black gun.

The Robin was the first prototype in their new line of long-range specialized 'Merrymen' Knightmares. Previously they had developed a line of close-range specialized machines in the 'Fianna' line, of which she had tested many.

The incredibly fast prototype Caílte, the close range E.M.P and fire using Aillen, the powerful Fionn and its predecessor Cumhall were just four of the line prototypes she had tested.

These machine's mass produced variants were known and used by Britannian forces, though they were less common than the more standard machines typically used. However their own designs had contributed DNA to the gene pool that was Knightmare development, and they had begun to receive DNA back their way before the death of the Prime Minister.

It wasn't to the point that any of their machines were up to the current apex of Knightmare development (that would be either the Lancelot of Camelot or the red machine that the Black Knights had used against it from what they had managed to hear about), but of their machines the Robin was the closest to pushing into the description of a machine as seventh generation.

Perhaps some of their up and coming machines could be at that level, such as the Merrymen line Sheriff (which was being designed with the intent of inducing energy drainage on enemy units) or Fianna line Oisín (which was being designed based on the Sagramore and Equus models) could manage that, or they could upgrade their existing models to that standard, but that was something for later.

For now she had some landspinners to test out…

**BANG!**

**BANG!**

Vulcan and the other scientists ducked out of the way as the metal door leading out to the training course was suddenly assaulted with a stream of bullets.

It hadn't been opened yet, and it may not open again given the massive warping and damage that was currently being inflicted on it.

She growled as she pointed the Robin's gun arm at the door, and fired.

The green blast that fired out of the machine blew the door off, and she sped out into it.

With the proof of their design work shown in the Fianna line, additional resourced had been allowed to them for later designs. The Robin was one such machine that benefited from the use of other technologies.

Sadly the railgun inspired weapon had not proven feasible for mass production, leaving such a weapon in only two machines in the world.

The Robin and the machine it had been designed for, the Lancelot.

As she understood it, Camelot did not know they had the technology and would probably consider it theft. Even if it had come from their patron himself giving the specs to them and not espionage.

Though being named after Robin Hood would probably make such a so called theft quite thematic.

Dodging another barrage of gun fire she sped out towards the source of the bullets while dodging the bullet spread.

The Robin moved fast enough to constantly gain just a bit more breathing space between itself and the bullets as she got to make out who was attacking them.

It was a pair of Panzer-class Knightmares: the backbone machine of the E.U the Panzer-Hummel.

What were they doing across the Atlantic!? Let alone this far inland from the coast?!

The machines spotted her getting closer and then proceeded to something that made her even more confused.

The Panzer were long ranged units, and it was generally considered dumb for them to ever attempt to engage in close range combat with a Britannian machine.

The Panzer won long ranged battles while at close range the victory went to Britannia.

However the Panzer's proceeded to charge at her like they were Sutherlands, firing constantly as they drew nearer.

She swerved away from the spread and fired on one of the machines.

Her blast hit it in the center and the machine crashed: a single hole through it going all the way through.

The remaining machine fired on her in a fury at the downing of its comrade, and she avoided the bullets once again as she took aim.

There wasn't any motion from the busted machine, which was suspicious. She shouldn't have hit the cockpit.

Were these some sort of drone? It could explain why they fought recklessly charging at her in a Panzer machine was a good idea.

She had heard Europe had drone technology more advanced than that of Britannia.

She took aim with her gun arm at the odd attacker and shot once more.

This time she aimed for the left gun; which she sheered off.

It continued charging, and she repeated with the right gun.

It was still charging at her, and this time she put all the power in her leg motors.

Her machine then leapt over the disarmed machine and landed behind it before she blasted both of the legs off it and sent it crashing down.

It was lying on its back, and was just as motionless as the first one.

She eyed the two machines with her facto-sphere sensors, and frowned.

The pilots were still inside each machine, though she wasn't seeing anything else to add to the oddity of this attack.

She had been expecting to detect explosives or something. Of course there were other kinds of explosions she could trigger, and she could do that without firing any railgun shots.

Speaking Brazilian Portuguese would do the job just fine.

"_Soldiers of Pedro, Neo-Tupi alliance, or other organization that acts against Viceroy Pyrrhus Hi Britannia, step out of the machines and surrender."_

There were two possibilities for what this.

One was that one of the still active terrorist cells in Area 8 had been smuggled European machines and had no idea what they were doing. They'd react negatively to her use of 'their' language while serving Britannia and attack.

The other was that hearing a language that wasn't their own would…

"Honorary Scum!"

And so both machines revealed their pilots to be men in Purist uniforms, each holding miniaturized rocket launchers aimed right at the Robin's cockpit.

She quickly shot two of the slash harkens out from the Robin's hips and disarmed them of their weapons. They kept their physical arms, though she suspected that one of the arms might have been dislocated from her blow.

"Surrender."

Rather then do so, the two men promptly bit on something and began foaming at their mouths.

…

"The good news is that the speed improvements to the landspinners were quite a success, though we will need to test it on gravel and uneven terrain at a later point. Less good news relates to the Panzer incident. We tracked the machines up to the Barinas Weapons Testing Facility in Area 6 where they were indeed stolen from a testing range. The commander was belligerent, but I don't think he was covering for the attack. I think he was just being an ass. The local Purist forces were as uncooperative as expected."

Pyrrhus had come in person to their own testing facility in Matto Grosso, and was currently looking at the covered bodies with a contemplative air.

"The guards on the border crossing they used to enter our territory without setting off alarms were murdered. They used a truck to travel here, though we can't find the truck itself. This is more than a two man job."

"That is undeniable, as is the fact that this is the fourth attack on members and associates of the royal family. This attack may not have put me at risk, but I am somehow doubtful that they knew I wasn't here at the time. Purists are not known to be smart. Though damage or capture of the Robin would have been quite the blow, and Igraine would certainly know that."

Igraine Mo Britannia. A royal sponsor of the Pureblood movement, as much of a large tent as it was.

Some just wanted there to be no Honorary Britannian system. That had been the wing that Zero had humiliated in Area 11.

Others wanted there to remove those considered 'not Britannian enough'.

What that meant was vastly scalable. There were even purists who disliked those who weren't from the British Isles originally at all and would go after people of German heritage.

Hatred always found something to cling onto after all: it just started with the most different and sought more and more differences as one fell into its fathomless depths.

"Is this our casus belli to take out Igraine?"

He shook his head, before grinning an audacious grin.

"Oh no, it isn't our casus belli. It's going to be Guinevere's you see. The woman's just waiting to go off on someone to assert her authority, and why not ensure she explodes in a useful direction?"

His grin left him as a frown came over him.

"Of course before that I'll need to make some calls. The guards that were butchered had families, and half of their families will need to be reminded personally that my administration pays survivors benefits to the so called honorary citizenry. Those guards were good men, and their families deserve compensation."

…

Shirley let out a soft whine like a worried puppy when the noble he was playing against took his second rook.

He chuckled at his victory.

"You left yourself exposed there young man. Much like that streaker the Viceroy executed the other day. Then again perhaps commoners are just strange folks. Some of them think running around the Viceroy palace stark naked won't get them killed, and you thought you could defeat me? Me!? That little girlfriend of yours is quite right to be worried. Now, our wager is two-hundred fifty thousand lest you forget."

Shirley was now letting out a noise that sounded like a very embarrassed leaking balloon.

"Oh, yes, of course. Though if I manage to win in the next five turns I do believe I'll win half a million instead."

The noble laughed at him.

"Well, isn't my old grandfather right? The commoners are the ones with the best sense of humor. Must be all them liberals they've got among them. Of course I can't see how you'd possibly do that."

He grinned lightly, even as the smirk he really wanted to give out was so dark it would probably count as evidence that he was Zero in a moderately corrupt court of law.

"Well we'll never know if we don't try won't we?"

Five turns later he and Shirley were walking away from a very stunned noble, and Shirley was still looking at him and his new suitcase of money in rapid shock as if she was still processing what had just happened.

"How did you even _do _that? I mean I'm not saying you cheated or anything: god I wouldn't even guess how you cheat at chess…"

"In my experience by pointing guns at your opponent, flinging cats at the person, or having your trained hawk fly off with your rooks. "

The way he said those points would make Shirley struggle to figure out if he was being truthful or lying about those three examples. The true answer was that two of those things had happened to him, and one did not.

"Cats?!"

He nodded.

"Multiple. All of those cats costing more than your entire wardrobe each. I've never gotten that, as Arthur is just the same as those cats and all he costs is some cat food and the bandages for Suzaku."

Shirley seemed to be trying to fathom how on earth a cat would cost that much.

"Were they house cats or tigers!?"

"House cats. Nobles aren't allowed to own tigers anymore."

That law change being one of the few things his father had done that he couldn't say he disagreed with. He could only argue with it by the simple principle of 'Charles Zi Britannia did it so it was bad'.

And he had standards that kept him from such arguments.

"Still, chess is all about planning ahead. When you plan ahead far enough, you can let your opponent get cocky and simply relish the victory. It's like cooking."

Shirley had a weird look on her face as he made the point, and he realized that he might have brought something up he shouldn't have.

Shirley after all knew very well why she was not allowed in the kitchen.

"Now then, onto the next noble and the next suitcase of money."

…

He adjusted his wig as he walked out of the next game, Shirley handling the suitcases of money this time. One in each hand and both idly swinging as they left their de-suitcased noble.

"What do you even do with all of these suitcases?"

He shrugged.

"Usually I sell them. I was thinking of keeping a few around to throw at the boys in Nunnally's grade, but that hasn't really been necessary."

"Lulu!"

"I'm kidding."

He was. He would get in actual trouble for that, unlike not going to class or doing his work to the best he could.

Also he had other means of keeping the boys away from his sister. Suitcase attacks were unnecessary.

…

He grinned as he moved himself into position to take checkmate in seven turns. His opponent wasn't able to see it, and seemed to believe this was still anyone's game.

His specifically.

Shirley was pinching her lips, and it looked like she was struggling to chuckle.

She seemed to have started to catch on to his tells, and could tell he was getting ready for the kill after a few games. While also telling his opponent couldn't see it at all.

She was always good at reading people.

…

Shirley had let out a laugh of amazement and joy at seeing him crush the noble for the final suitcase of the day, but in the aftermath she seemed to have withdrawn a bit into herself.

Not as Nina did when she was confronted with anything that wasn't a way to show off her intelligence in a non-showy way, but still in a manner that wasn't quite the Shirley way of things.

It was a bit odd, so he made a stop on the way back to the academy.

She seemed quite shocked when he put a bag of fast food on her lap and a drink in her grip.

"Wha…?"

She took a moment to notice what he had gotten, and was even more surprised.

"A number thirteen? How did you know?"

"I'm observant in things other than just chess."

The meaning of what he was saying registered quickly to Shirley, and she looked away.

"I'm supposed to be responsible, and I'm here while you are being so…so irresponsible. What's worse than gambling?"

"Thievery, murder, extortion, and kicking puppies."

He'd have said terrorism, but why given Kallen more reason to stab him?

Shirley gave him an exasperated look.

"Please Lulu, I'm just…shouldn't someone be trying to be the adult who remembers that gambling is dangerous and wrong and…."

She lost her words as she clearly wasn't forgetting how she did in fact enjoy seeing him winning.

He pointed to where the money cases were on the bike with a look of amusement.

"People put too much stock in the concept of what it means to be mature. A mature film, to quote Rivalz from that movie party we had a while ago, 'half the time is just a kids film with the fart jokes, bad comedy, and puns replaced with sex jokes, swear words, and blood'. He's a good friend, but if he's noticing that sort of thing I think it makes it rather obvious. Also what is more mature than providing for your family as best you can?"

"But you are so much better than gambling."

Shirley seemed to have a fire going in her now, so she was at least no longer conflicted.

She was of course about to crusade about his wasted potential, which wasn't good either. Better than her being bothered by something, but still not good for him.

"You're so smart Lulu. You might even be smarter than Nina in some ways. Some academic ways, not just in wardrobe and social interactions and common sense and those things that it's really not fare to judge Nina in. You could get a job that pays even better with gambling easily, and one that wouldn't involve people throwing cats at you. You could change the world more than I ever could hope to!"

"But I choose not to in your eyes."

She nodded vigorously.

"I know that you have your disagreements with how things are. You're not some terrorist expressing it with explosions and death or anything, but you'd like to see the world change. You could do it…"

"So why aren't I?"

Technically he was a terrorist expressing his disagreements with explosion and death and many anythings, but Shirley did not need to know that he was Zero. In fact it would be for the best she never knew that.

"Truth is, I couldn't if I tried. The exacts are complicated, and frankly private, but let me put it this way. You are aware of Rivalz's situation."

He knew that to be true, so it wasn't a question. She nodded.

"Yeah. He and his dad don't get along at all, so he doesn't use his name. Rivalz is a noble, but he has to work to get his own money and he can't use his noble status for most any…"

She stopped explaining Rivalz's history as she started to put together what he was getting at.

"You and Nunna never talk about your family…it's something like that but worse isn't it?"

He nodded. 'Being worse than Rivalz's family' was an acceptable description of the Britannian Royal Family.

"Indeed. The fact both of our fathers are horrible is part of the common ground we have as friends. However even Rivalz will agree that my father is worse than his. Rivalz could imagine repairing things with his father, but I cannot. Moreover playing in anything that draws his gaze is something I absolutely abhor to do. Nunnally and I will never have anything to do with him, ever."

Except destroying his empire and ruining his legacy even in death, but that didn't need to be said.

"You hate your father that much?"

Shirley said the phrase like it was utterly foreign to her.

He nodded.

"You really mean hate. You're not frustrated or upset or envious or bothered…but hate? Like hate hate? Like 'the J.L.F hate Britannians' level hate?"

He again nodded, and Shirley still seemed to be unsure of how to grasp that. He could tell she could understand why Kusakabe hated Britannia as much as he did, even if her understanding of the situation if she tried to explain it would probably boil Kallen's blood.

She could understand why Kusakabe hated her, but not how anyone could hate their father.

"How could you hate a parent that much? I mean maybe it's just me, but I couldn't imagine my Dad doing anything bad or evil or anything that could even make me consider hating him. He sometimes evades taxes sure, but that's not really evil."

"If evading taxes was evil, Zero would have free reign to depopulate the noble class and most of the working class. I'm sure Suzaku thinks that's evil, but you don't really care for him and I discussing such thing so I'll spare you. No, my father's list of heinous behaviors isn't limited to tax evasion, but it has more than warranted my hatred. I'll be simple and say this: the last time I spoke to him was shortly after Nunnally was injured."

He could almost hear the gears in Shirley's head turning as she processed the implications of what he just said.

He could even tell when she was about to ask him if his father was just so bad at handling grief and horror he came off as a terrible person, but she stopped herself from saying it lest she be unintentionally offensive.

"No parent could possibly be that horrible."

"Parent is a strong word Shirley. A parent raises a child; simply ensuring they come into the world in a biological sense is something else entirely. My father was not a parent to me or Nunnally or anyone else."

"Oh, you have half-siblings?"

He internally cursed as that part slipped out and Shirley caught it.

He'd need to get this under control before he had a second person learn some of his secrets in a single week!

Shirley wouldn't have some half baked plan to threaten him with it, but he could imagine the horrible things Shirley might do instead.

All of them involved Euphemia trying to hug him!

"I do. I haven't seen any of them in years, and I'd rather not. Truth be told I'd rather see them than our father, but I'd much prefer not to see them to avoid being drawn back into family drama. I'd much prefer that not to happen."

He held the last part long enough he was sure Shirley would get the memo, which she nodded in agreement to.

Though she seemed to think he was wrong in his desire to keep away from them. He'd let her think that.

"It seems unthinkable to you Shirley, but you should take solace that it is. Among the student council you are the only one who doesn't have a tragic backstory, and your heart can't imagine such things. I envy you sometimes."

Shirley looked ready to protest that the rest of the council did not in fact have tragic back stories, but each time she looked ready to argue it died in her throat.

She started with Suzaku, but she quickly seemed to realize against it.

Then she tried to say Nina's name, but they all had their guesses there.

Milly's name also quickly died in her throat, even if Milly's issues were less obvious than that of Suzaku or Nina.

"Kallen's only a bit sick….oh god I sound horrible saying that isn't bad or tragic!"

"I can assure you Kallen also has a dark and tragic back story that influences who she is, but that's not really your or my business. Also your food is getting cold and your ice is melting and diluting your drink."

…

He had insisted on stopping for shopping. This was in part because Sayoko had messaged him that they were running low on the items and could use more for dinner, and because he wanted to ensure that Shirley didn't think too long on the part about half siblings.

It wasn't something that was obviously going to lead to her realizing that he was an exiled prince. Much of the student body of Ashford had half siblings and Shirley was aware of that to some extent: noble bastards from the affairs of their fathers cheating of their mothers mostly. Ideally she'd assume that was what he was referring to given the way he had phrased his wording.

There were some step siblings around here or there and that could be where Shirley might also lean towards, but the fact was that a lot of nobles took the occasional belch from his father's mouth about 'how not coveting the neighbor's wife was a sign of weakness' as gospel.

Ironically no one had ever managed to find a royal bastard from the man himself, and he refused to believe that was because of some standard. There were many who had blood from such royal bastards from the past, so whenever someone had tried to prove it usually just turned out to be the great-grandson of some long dead royal.

Nina sometimes got questions about if she had royal blood in her veins and she always avoided answering the question as opposed to being too shy to. He could also recall someone trying to make a scandal years ago about his mother being a royal bastard descendent and that her marrying the Emperor was incest.

He had never gotten what the point of that was: where she was said to be share descent with the Emperor was past the point of legal incest for one thing. The other was why such people thought the Emperor would care either way.

He idly waited for Shirley: his own shopping done with efficiency yet his mind still idly thinking of the half sibling question.

If only so he didn't have to fully listen to the auto playing infomercials telling him why he should be buying certain types of canned food.

Britannia had no set way of handling bastards, and how they were handled differed from person to person, and he couldn't really map it to other standards of decency.

For example there was one student in Ashford who was closer to his bastard half brother than any of his full siblings and often met him for meals and other social events. Rumor had it he'd even have paid for his half-brother's tuition personally if his own mother wasn't so against it and it was generally assumed he would support said brother quite fully and openly once his mother had less influence on his person. Said student also really disliked Suzaku for being just an Honorary Britannian.

Meanwhile there was another student who wanted nothing to do with any of the results of his father's affairs and quite dramatically made that known. He had invited Suzaku to badminton lessons the other day and was apparently genuinely helpful and interested in known Suzaku better as a human being.

Step siblings and half brothers and sisters from remarriage or even additional wives in some cases were similar: there were students who loved such children like full siblings, others who hated them, and there was no real correlation to how they treated Suzaku or other metrics of personality positives and negatives.

The additional wife part of course made him quite glad that Shirley had defaulted to the much more common assumption of step sibling or half sibling via cheating or what be. Charles Zi Britannia wasn't the only noble with officially more wives than one, but it was far less common and thus easier to guess correctly.

"Coming soon for the first time for home consumption and viewing pleasure!"

His focus was drawn to the advertisement as was its intended purpose. In it a figure anyone would recognize was being depicted.

It was not Zero.

"Disguised as the mild-mannered Clark Kent, the great titan who represents the nobility of truth, justice, and true chivalry comes to your home viewing pleasure with the smash hit film!"

He rolled his eyes.

Nothing against the character himself: for all he found the patriotic themes the series often had as grating as anything in Britannia he could appreciate that the character had the odd tendency to be so darn positive and upbeat that he couldn't really hate it.

Superman was like Euphemia if she could throw things into the sun and more willing to use violence, at least when he was written properly in his opinion.

It was more the fact that he had his own problems with someone 'disguised as the mild-mannered Kallen Stadtfeld' at the moment and while he was going to file away that joke for later it wasn't particularly welcome.

He also wasn't much for Britannian cinema in general, but that was no fault of Superman. It was more the general directions given to productions by studio mandates he disliked.

Also the popcorn was bad.

"Sorry to keep you waiting!"

He waved off Shirley's concern as she ran over to him. He had seen the line she was in: it was no one's fault the machine had a problem.

He idly noted what he could spy in Shirley's bags: mostly miscellaneous things like snacks and soaps. However there was one thing he did notice that stood out a bit.

She seemed to notice that he noticed, and for some reason got flustered.

"Oh this?! Oh it's just a little bit of reading, I mean I know it's a little young for me…I mean I'm a little old for it…nothing like anyone or anything real certainly…"

"Shirley, I don't judge anyone for what they read because of something like what age it is targeted. In the wise words of Rivalz after all…"

Shirley's facial colors got weird at the odd combination of being flustered and perhaps the comedy of 'the wise words of Rivalz' he noted the book she had being one of the works of a writer named Rick Riordan.

A writer of urban fantasy books that Nunnally also liked, he had completed two series so far and was working on a third. Shirley's looked to in the second series.

The basic plot of the books was mythology existing in the modern day and young children and teenagers finding themselves thrown into the mythological world to save the world.

Ironically like Superman, the series itself was a good display of the inherit hypocrisy and contradictions of Britannia.

Both series could be considered glowing endorsements of what Britannia said it was. All men weren't equal after all, and what was more unequal than the Man of Steel or a superpowered set of demigods?

Yet at the same time they all came from common backgrounds that had no ties to the nobility. They were tales of the ideal story of a Britannian earning acclaim and glory with their own efforts, and the first of the three book series was about a boy finding himself worthy of using Excalibur and forming a new Camelot. The star of the second of the series and the breakout character of the first was disabled with ADHD and dyslexia. All of their powers were seen as ways to help their friends and fight evil, and not go conquer the world.

That was very much against the mindset of nobility and the empire's expansionist doctrine, and said nobility complained about it and helped spark nonsense against both franchises.

Britannia had many problems, and he hated so many of them that the hypocrisy of its ideals rarely came into play as a source of his hatred and rage.

He idly noted the cover of the book and thus the focus character of the second series Percy Jackson.

The image matched the descriptions he had read to Nunnally a few times when that was the only means to do so: a thin and tall young man with disheveled black hair and distinctive eyes of a green color who had the odd looks of both being a trouble maker and a good person.

Nunnally had once said that Percy sometimes reminded her of him 'if he could swing a sword, control water, and had a New York accent'. He had chuckled at the idea of the time, and he wondered if it seemed that way to anyone else.

Surely Shirley didn't see such similarities either and didn't, as Nunnally admitted to him once, sometimes imagine him in the place of the breakout demigod character defeating great and terrible monsters and getting the aid of gods?

…

She really didn't have a ton she could be doing right now, and the worst part was it was because one of her husband's duds was being more competent than expected.

When she had heard the Viceroy of Area 8 inform the acting Empress about the hijacked Panzers and the Purebloods anyone could have seen Guinevere order an immediate attack on Igraine personally commanded by (also called meddled with) herself.

The glorious Empress who was totally not only there because her best children were in Area 11 and busy trying to kill each other.

Had she done that Bismark would have been reasonable and had him, Nonette, and Anya hidden to go in and save the day when she inevitably screwed up because Guinevere was Guinevere. She'd take over Anya, and Guinevere would be too busy having a temper tantrum at things going wrong to do any real damage.

No instead she was having her wonderful Marrybell take her squad to handle it after some advisor whose name she didn't know suggested her doing so and gave a few reasons why that were actually decent, and when Marrybell had asked for a bit of prep time she was given a few days in a reasonable request.

Why was she being intelligent now? She wanted to kill things again, and she couldn't just tag along with Marrybell. Guinevere being intelligent meant they all had to work harder to make sure she wasn't being intelligently dumb.

People could do a lot of horrible things when they were intelligently making terrible decisions.

Said De Britannia was currently in a war meeting with Bismark, Cornelia by communication, and others about Africa, and because Carine was also there little was there for her to be doing in the means of keeping something in vague order after a bunch of stupid cookies ruined everything!

So she decided to do what she did when she wasn't supposed to be doing something else: say hi to C.C.

She had been described what she was like to C.C when she did pop up to talk to her: she was something like a ghost who floated around her. Sadly without a ghost tail or anything neat like that, but a floating person only C.C could see.

The immortal never did react to her when she popped up. It was as if seeing a recreation of her ruined body in mental form wasn't a brilliant sight or something.

"Hello!"

C.C didn't say hi back or wave or anything, but she could tell the immortal was at least paying attention. She had a few tells like that.

"Sooo….how are my children? I know they are alive, but that's it. Do they have any girlfriends? Boyfriends?"

Like many things if they fixed humanity, gender would be irrelevant. Just like death.

"I don't have any knowledge of who Nunnally hangs around with or what she finds attractive. Lelouch meanwhile is….Lelouch."

"The orange haired swimmer, Milly Ashford, his ace pilot…maybe that one whose name is escaping me. Oh maybe Suzaku!"

C.C was looking at her in an unamused way.

"What, if you aren't going to tell me, I'm going to make my own guesses. I'd guess that little genius too but we saw her internet history so yeah, no little Einsteins in our family because of Lelouch's charms."

Lelouch was so cute in the idea that he though she and Charles (or more Charles given that he assumed she was dead and gone) didn't know anything. He was their favorite son; of course they were going to know everything about him no matter how hard he tried to keep it secret.

"Or are you just jealous that he likes orange or red or yellow or blue or brown more than green?"

C.C's stride changed a bit, and she was going to chuck it all up to her being right. She floated around behind her as she continued the talk.

"Personally if he's into any of them, I'd prefer it to be either that spunky half blood or him fighting with dear Euphie over Suzaku. The others just aren't quite wife or husband material, though they could surprise me I suppose."

C.C stopped walking and turned to look at her in exasperation.

"And what, pray tell, is ideal marriage partner material in your eyes?"

She clapped her hands together, her face smiling as she thought of what made someone worthy of her babies.

"The willingness to be drenched in the blood of your loved one's enemies after killing them all."

It was why Oldrin and Marrybell were so good for each other.

There was no more wonderful thing than working to make the world better for those you loved.

Killing the problems or fixing the problems by removing the collective consciousness were just two of the ways of doing so.

That Shirley girl was nice, and Milly was one of the best Ashfords in the family. However if they weren't willing to kill for Lelouch, could they really call themselves potential wives?

There was a word for a wife who wasn't willing to fix the world for her husband or wife: that was a surrogate for the real wife (or wives she supposed).

She had to admit she didn't know what she'd call a bloodless husband, so what she'd call Rivalz was escaping her.

It was kind of rude to the poor boy who hadn't done anything wrong, but until he killed someone for her children (she'd also take a omnivorous bear, a crocodilian of at least 6 feet in length, or a shark that was at least five feet in length that wasn't a filter feeder) she'd have to question what to call him instead of approving of him in full.

"I don't claim to be an expert, but I don't think that that is how love works."

Oh dear, she might have been a bit rude there to poor C.C.

"Breaking minds for him, giving him geass, and saving him from my dear Cornelia is good too. You can marry him too."

As just his wife, one of his wives, his wife with Lelouch's husband…any such combination really. Jealousy was another thing fixing humanity's division problem with the Ragnaraok Connection would remove after all.

"Love and marriage are not the same thing. How many fellow wives do you have that actually love Charles, or are loved by him back?"

"You know what I mean C.C. I want my children to marry for love, and I'm just conflating the words a bit. I'm just a parent who wants to see such people prove they are in love. Show me they are worthy of them. I can't help but be worried, it is possible that Charles and I might have messed up with the two of them somewhere and it could keep them from finding love."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure the invasion of Japan and being abandoned would cause them some trauma."

Why did C.C have such edge in her voice? She knew it was to keep V.V from doing something horrible to them.

"I'm not sure what you mean by that? Such a thing should only make them want more love to heal their pain. Charles, bless him, sucked at showing affection openly, and I'm sure that they'd want to fill the holes in their hearts with the love that Charles was terrible at showing and I wasn't around to give in the physical plain anymore, let alone the love of their siblings. If it isn't between themselves it would have to be with others. Friendship is fine, but it no replacement for familiar and romantic love for my children. No I'm worried that I was right and Charles might have messed the four of them up, and that's just me only talking about the ones here and not all around the world."

"You're miscounting."

She chuckled at C.C's odd point.

"Oh no I'm not. I'm talking about my babies Lelouch, Nunnally, Cornelia, and Euphemia…though less her. She's tougher then most give her credit for. She's like a soft and cuddly toy bear, with an internal skeleton of steel."

"…Their last names are Vi and Li Britannia. You only birthed the first two. Those last two came out of…well whoever the Li Britannia wife was. I don't really care who she was, but she's not you."

"She was just the surrogate. Nothing more in the end. Just like Gabrielle or Flora or the rest of them. They're all my children with Charles really."

She pressed a hand to her intangible chest, wishing she could feel her heart beating.

"Lelouch and Nunnally are wonderful, but being pregnant sucks ass. You should be glad you never were pregnant C.C. I've been naked in a swamp suffering from malaria and having to kill anAlligator with my bare hands just to stay alive, and I'd rather do that again than be pregnant a third time. Not that I can do that now, because getting Anya pregnant for such a thing would be kind of messed up. But two children just isn't enough. Fortunately Charles has all of those other women to have our children instead. I don't have to feel like I'm swallowing boiling mercury for three months again, and our family still gets to grow. I watched so many of them being made and coming into the world it was just magical. Euphemia, Marrybell, Carine, Julia, Laila, Ingraine, so many others. So many wonderful babies…. Though for some reason some of their surrogates found it creepy and Charles had to use his geass to make them stop rudely screaming at me to go away."

Her smile faded a bit as she remembered what had caused problems after that.

"Of course some of said surrogates just ruined them. Some people are just not fit to be 'parents', just look at what happened to Guinevere. But the love for my children made such a happy nucleus for the royal family. I was and still am the mother to so many, and the love I gave them and had them foster among each other brought out the best in them. Just look at Clovis: I helped him become such a better person than Gabrielle ever could have. That's what a mother does for her child. A real mother. Cornelia's potential was made real by me, and her loyalty to my memory was reinforced with love as much as her amazement at me in general. The royal family always does better with someone like me around: Charles didn't have anyone like that and his family tore itself apart. This generation was peaceful when I was around, and most of the ones killed in Britannia by Britannains died before me and after me. V.V destroying my body corrupted so many of them in some way, except for Euphemia. Like I said, she's our stuffed bear with solid metal for a skeleton."

C.C had a weird look on her face for some reason. She couldn't really describe what it was, but she had no idea what it was for.

"Did I say something strange? Well where was I: oh yes what my dearly departed husband.." she rubbed a few tears from her eyes "…well he wasn't perfect. If Lelouch and Nunnally are struggling with love, same with Cornelia, it is because of just how often he messed with their memories of seeing me and him express our love. It must have been…oh yes two hundred and forty three. That was how many times Lelouch walked in on us becoming one. Cornelia did it about three hundred and eight times, and Nunnally about a hundred and eighty nine. Euphemia was about a hundred square. I was always telling Charles it would just save time to talk to them about it and be better for them in the end, but he was always so quick to geass their memories of it. Children really should know what physical love looks like, and who knows what all of that subconscious memory alteration did to the poor things. I swear after the hundredth time I'm pretty sure Cornelia became attracted to me, or at least more than she might have already been. It really must have confused the poor girl to love her mother like that. Not unheard of in the royal family sure, but still confusing. That poor Guilford might have had a chance without it…"

"Do you want to know where Lelouch and Nunnally are?"

C.C was a bit rude in interrupting her, but really was she any better?

She really should have asked that earlier.

"Oh yes, I'd like to know that. Ever since…cookies….I just haven't as good of an eye on the two of them. I know he gave Cornelia quite a shock, and he's been busy preparing for doom like he's a Mormon, but that's really it. I'm really falling behind on being a mother. Perhaps Anya should consider going to Area 11 if Guinevere can be leashed."

"Lelouch's last week of gambling has him and Nunnally in 'extensive disguise' at Babel Tower. Big winnings I'm told. When he's done there he has a meeting with Todoh. He wants to get the JLF under his command."

"As he should, but does he really think Cornelia will just let him bring jelly doughnuts to meet with the second most wanted man in the empire?"

Lelouch didn't like jelly doughnuts, so he'd bring them for the other person and keep the ones he actually liked for himself. He preferred plain glazed ones, though he had come to like chocolate ones a bit more in the last few years due to Milly Ashford's tendencies for festivities.

What sort of mother wouldn't know such things about their child?

"That's what Kallen's for. She's already out on a couple of raids in that big red machine of hers. The idea is that she's a diversion with most of their forces deployed while he lets the JLF provide most of the protection for his meeting with Todoh."

A pretty good plan from her son in her opinion, if a tad boring from him. Cornelia she knew had let up on the ideal marriage candidate for Euphemia and one of Lelouch's best matches being restrained in his use because of the power of the red machine. She'd assume that Zero was thinking similarly, as was logical after Shinjuku and the hotel incident. They needed to have the machines counter each other.

The idea that her son was bold enough to use his best weapon and protection as a diversion was something Cornelia wouldn't expect at this time, though it wasn't the most exciting plan he could be using. If the JLF didn't do something stupid he'd probably get his meeting done and Cornelia would lose good men to a wild goose chase.

She'd be unhappy after that. Poor Cornelia. She was getting quite a bit a crash course of why having a worthy opponent was bad.

They ground resources and men down like a cheese grater, and there was no more worthy opponent for a Britannia than another Britannia.

People loved to glamorize such things, but war was better when fighting completely unremarkable idiots who couldn't wreck your stuff and kill too many of your men.

Such lies made by the need to sell good stories would be removed by Ragnarok.

She opened her mouth to say more, but stopped when she spotted someone slinking around.

C.C also did, and her eyes narrowed.

"Tell me, is that…"

"Yes."

She had no amusement in her voice.

…

She could sense the geass that was in the little sneak going around Ashford and they followed.

C.C being quite stealthy to avoid detection, and her being a ghost who couldn't actually be detected by most anyone so it was all on the pizza glutton to avoid detection.

The intruder was one of V.V's little assassins, and said little thing shouldn't be here.

"….C.C, tell me, this is the first one if I am not mistaken?"

She was quite sure it was in fact the first one, but as the little monster continued to sneak around the grounds she wanted to be sure.

C.C nodded tersely.

"Correct. Unless their maid's been killing them when I haven't been looking, this is the first one of V.V's creatures here. Didn't take him a month to try to start finishing what he started all those years ago."

She growled.

V.V!

He ruined everything! Because of him she didn't have her body anymore, her family was torn apart and corrupted by the surrogates and their own grief, and without her son there was no perfect candidate to take the throne anymore!

Cornelia was good, but Lelouch was better! At least at ruling, Cornelia had him beat in other important things like bear strangling, piloting, body count, and fencing.

That wasn't even getting into the fact that her son was currently liable to make a bad situation worse while dressed in a silly outfit because V.V started the big line of traumas to the poor boy.

Lelouch could mess up her and Charles's plans to save humanity with the Sword all because V.V was irrationally jealous.

Now he had an assassin after her babies!

"C.C, you can get his attention and neutralize him if you use the secret password."

The immortal was looking at her in confusion at her advice.

"What secret…"

"Secret password! After V.V proved he couldn't be trusted, Charles used his geass to put a counter-measure in his assassins if they try to kill anyone he shouldn't again. He did more than just get annoyed at the last Mel Britannia pointing a sword at him you know, he actually took steps to keep that from happening again. I think this was one of the couple hundred we can get to obey us with the right code phrase. Alright, so repeat after me: 'the great royal dingus is the most glorious at three o'clock noon'.'

C.C was looking at him like she said something ridiculous. Which was the point.

"Who is going to say that accidentally? He can't hear it when I say it, so you'll have to say it. So I'll say it again: 'the great royal dingus…"

"Alice? You are still alive? Lord V.V believed you dead."

Their assassin was stopped in his tracks in shock, as was C.C and her.

Well not tracks in her case, given that she was floating, but the basic idea was still there.

The assassin had been approached by a student who was dressed as an Ashford middle schooler. She was an athletic looking girl: blonde with a pair of pig tails and red eyes. She was not happy looking at this current situation.

"I'm not. What are you doing here Jeralt?"

She knew his name? He knew her?

The child assassin looked in the direction of her children's beds. Alice also noted this direction, and a darker look came over her.

"Lord V.V wishes the deaths of two students present here, and he has sent me to do it. They are a threat to the goals of the Geass Order and must be eliminated. You must return too, though it was not part of my mission parameters. Missing agents must be retrieved where possible, or eliminated. I'd prefer the former myself."

"I don't have a mission. Not anymore."

The assassin looked confused.

"I don't understand. We always have missions, and yours was completed years ago. You should have gotten new orders. Are you affected by someone's geass and not acting properly? If so, I must bring you back to Lord V.V to fix you. We can go home together after I have killed Lelouch and Nunnally…"

It was at the instant the syllables in the assassin were clearly going to say Nunnally: a look of rage came over the girl's face and her eyes flashed with a Geass. She couldn't tell what the girl's power was: it could be something to make her move faster with reaction time or something, or maybe she slowed down Jeralt. However the assassin was quickly taken out, and he was not going to get back up.

That was to say he was dead.

"Stay away from my friend."

The way Alice growled those words at the corpse, the way she responded so quickly to a threat to her daughter…

"C.C: this girl can marry Nunnally. If she can earn Nunnally's heart, she can have her hand."

It was perfect.

She could almost feel tears in her eyes as Alice dragged the body away.

So many of her children had perfect people for them: Kallen, Guilford, Suzaku, Oldrin, and now Alice.

Love was so beautiful. It also killed threats before they could hurt her children.

…

Desperate times came from desperate measures. Ideally he'd have preferred he had not needed to go as far as he did, but he had checked his math after he had been given some estimates about how much money was needed for good will.

He had not originally considered the possibility that the Black Knights would want to feed the common people. However upon that issue coming to him he had realized that it would be something both hard to prevent, and a poor choice to avoid. The good will damage of them not giving food to civilians in the ghettos was frankly like losing a limb from Guren, and he wasn't going to bet the limb lost was the arm that didn't have the radiant wave surger.

So he was getting one last massive haul of funds in the means he'd rather not do. First at Babel Tower, which was filled with a crowd of Britannians he would normally avoid. The second was the fact that his partner was Nunnally. Taking Nunnally with him gambling was something he really didn't like to do, but there were benefits to it. The sort of Britannian that was usually gambling in Babel Tower were also the sort who saw a young Britannian with an injured sister gambling and thought 'this person desperately needs money for this girl, I'm going to love breaking their hearts and ruining their lives and dangle an even bigger carrot at them'. Also Nunnally's wheelchair for the occasion could carry a lot more suitcases than a pair of hands in its undercarriage and allowed for the most amount of winnings before retiring. The final extreme however, was less in regards to risk and more in his pride. Milly must never know and he could trust Nunnally to keep quiet more than anyone else.

"It pains me so that you took such a risk to help your little sister. All of those winnings so far, and you found your way to me. In ten moves all of that hard work will be for not, but hey maybe that healthcare reform thing will help her out. If you are willing to gamble in chess little miss, you surely will gamble with politicians?"

He carefully adjusted the hair of his wig as he responded in a tone that Milly must never hear him speak.

"Why I don't know about that? To me this seems like anyone's game."

The noble actually seemed like had some brain cells, but the tone of his voice completely fooled him as to what his gender actually was. He was actually amused by the idea that this game was still up in the air. It wasn't really: he was going to take checkmate in seven moves.

Nunnally held a quiet hand up to her mouth as if she was about to giggle, but she kept it together. It was better to let the bait be caught off guard after all.

…

"You know, it feels like we can probably take at least one more game. I can still hear some space for a suitcase down there."

As they left the quite stunned noble, he looked to his sister with a bit of confusion as to what exactly she meant by that. Not just the confusion necessary to throw off anyone who might be paying attention to them: that had been covered by both their disguises.

He did not need to wear one of Milly's overly-fancy dresses to pretend he was a girl. Honestly he could pass as one pretty effectively with just a wig and a bit more feminine attire than average. His wig however wasn't a black one but one that matched Nunnally's own hair color. She meanwhile had her haired dyed as black as his along with a pair of glasses that masked the fact that her eyes were closed. She just looked like a four-eyed girl in a wheelchair instead of a blind girl in a wheelchair.

The disguise worked by Nunnally's senses being enough to pick up things like gestures, and she noted his own confusion.

"The air that flows through the undercarriage and over the cases makes a distinct sound, and that sound changes with the amount of space taken up. It's just an estimate, but even if I'm wrong you should be able to carry it just fine. I could too for that matter. You are the one doing all of the work."

He chuckled at that one.

"I don't know about that seeing as you're the one carrying all of the money. I'm just making foolish men be foolish. That's incredibly easy."

"If I was actually lifting them it would be work. But it's not. I'm basically just driving a car I don't even have the ability to unload."

That point stung with the gentleness of a wasp. One that seemingly stung the both of them seeing as neither of them spoke for a good bit after that. They just walked and wheeled along in silence, hearing only the distant murmurings of shoppers, fiends, and the faintest of hint of screaming.

"…Let's eat. I'm hungry, and I can smell a cafeteria nearby. One that actually has decent food, unlike the last one. Seriously, who eats caramel-barbeque rabbit?!"

"Apparently it became fashionable last year in certain corners of the empire. Your guess is as good as mine as to why Nunnally."

…

Questionable trends in questionable nationalities aside, they eventually did in fact get some food and were enjoying themselves well enough.

It was nothing on what he could cook, or Sayoko, or in general anything with that non-corporate touch, but it was good enough and it was surprisingly reasonable in price. With a place like that he had really expected the food to cost a few fingers and a foot for anything half-way filling.

"I'm amazed everyone seems normal."

Nunnally's comment drew his attention away from the food. Died black hair and trick shades met his gaze she gestured with her head to indicate all of the people in the food court and everywhere elsewhere in the place.

"I suppose they are all rather calm for being in a place that screams biblically a bad idea. For a Holy Britannian Empire that is a fact that often seems neglected."

He could tell that wasn't what Nunnally meant, but he honestly wanted to make that joke with someone but Rivalz was really busy today and wouldn't get to hear the joke until tomorrow, Shirley was actually religious and would probably find it a bit too rude evne for his preferred persona, Suzaku had no sense of humor or any understanding of what the Tower of Babel even was, and Milly would sniff out the wig until it was buried in concrete. Speaking of hiding evidence that geassed delivery man should have put the concrete mixer in a convenient location by about now.

"Someone thinking that naming something Babel Tower was a good idea isn't what I meant. The name is terrible, but all the people who are here should be noticing things. Hearing things. Picking up that something isn't right. But they are just acting like everything is normal."

It might just be because of the glasses, but the expression his sister had was honestly unreadable.

"I mean forget Pendragon, they don't even seem to realize that such a dangerous person as Zero is running around doing who knows what."

Indeed no one but C.C knew that Zero was gambling among their shadiest of elites and middle class right now. Of course Nunnally did not mean that specifically, but the idea that a dangerous masked man was lurking around the area should worry people more. Indeed he could say for certain that Zero did worry people who weren't directly shooting at him.

"Alas some people live in bubbles. It can be hard to see through the bubble and what the world really is like. For some it is unintentional, but for others it is by choice or delusion. A lot of the people here can't fathom the idea that Zero could ever be a threat to them. He's distant to them, just like China or Europe."

"Hopefully Zero doesn't show them. It would be weird if he started breaking into people's houses and watching them while they sleep."

He had no idea where that example of all things came from. Why would he possibly do that? He chose to blame Milly for Nunnally thinking that.

"I think Zero has better things to do with his time than being a bogeyman by choice."

"I do hope he does."

For some reason he didn't quite have a response to that one. He wasn't entirely sure why.

He did however have a response in mind to the jerk that had come up to their table with disdain on his face and a well loaded plate and was quite rude to them.

"Time's up girlies. I'm sitting here."

"No."

It wasn't the most verbose answers, but it was curt and to the point. It didn't quite work for their botherer though, who continued to glare down at them.

"No nopes about it. I want to sit here, and you are going to get up. Or there is going to be trouble."

Was he some sort of minor nobility and figured that they were just commoners? They were 'just commoners', but it was still quite rude and he was going to be punished for it.

His mind was already hard at work with his training in how to disguise geass orders into his words without making it obvious to Nunnally that something was up. He already had twenty-two ideas for things to order the jerk to do other than bothering them. He just had to decide which of them he was going to use on him.

"Does the girl even need a seat? She's basically a table in that chair of hers."

Nunnally's response to that _interesting _rude remark about her disability was a mixture of looking genuinely hurt and baffled at being called a table, which then had a twinge of horror that reminded of him of the smell of bleach. Meanwhile it only made his choice clearer. He was going with order seventeen.

However he was sadly prevented from doing so when a shadow dwarfed the jerk and made him jump in shock and spill his food on the ground.

"Apologize to these two young ladies at once!"

It was a voice that he recognized and was also recognized by Nunnally to for that matter. The jerk however, beyond all the expectations he did not have for Britannian intelligence, did not.

"Hey that was my food you bastard! Who do you think you…"

"Bigger than you."

Indeed the disgraced Jeremiah Gottwald, a man he was crossdressing to avoid being noticed by, dwarfed the man in height. That was enough to get the jerk to run off. Jeremiah shook his head at the display before looking at the two of them with a fondness in his looks.

"Hopefully he did not insult you young ladies too poorly. A Britannian acting like that is an utter disgrace wouldn't you agree?"

Well the man's lack of knowledge of famously infamous fruit was rather appalling. He wouldn't use the term disgraceful for him though. Of course his own choice in vocabulary aside, Nunnally seemed to agree with him.

"It was horrible. People can always be rude to you, but you never really expect it when it happens. Let alone people calling you a table."

Again Nunnally winced, and he really did want to know what Nina spilled on their table that made Nunnally wince like that. Buffalo sauce? Nina did actually like those things for some reason.

Orange seemed to suddenly age a few years as he continued to talk to his sister in a way that was going to give him nightmares. Jeremiah was his enemy!

"Yes, life can be horrible sometimes. Oh, never mind me. I'm just a wounded man rambling in his wounds. I won't be troubling you."

"Oh it's no trouble at all. Come, why don't you have a seat. You can have some of my fries."

Oh god no. It would be either Nunnally or Shirley who'd do something like that. Even Suzaku wouldn't.

Nunnally adjusted her glasses with only the sense of touch, yet somehow she managed to convey a feeling akin to the time that Euphemia had managed to get a pair of glasses on to puppy-dog eye him into that tea party. It was painfully powerful.

"…Thanking you kindly."

…

It was beyond belief that he was now having lunch with the man whose life, career, and quite possibly emotional well-being he had destroyed, and only he knew it. It wasn't even him being mean about it like he how used to get away with Kallen and what had once been an exclusive holding of secrets. (He could not do that anymore sadly).

"It feels embarrassing that I need to mooch off your food like this. But alas, my diet has been a bit constricted since…well the thing. I never realized just how much money I was spending until the viceroy cut my paycheck up like confetti."

"You never do realize how much money you could have used better until you are getting less. It's a perfectly human reaction."

But no, Orange was at their table eating their fries and just airing his miseries to them while Nunnally nodded along. He didn't seem to tell that she was blind, and given the miserable state that Orange was in he wasn't even sure that was on Nunnally.

"But I shouldn't have been human. I was a knight and a leader. I should have been more than that."

"We're all human, no matter the rank. The Emperor is human and my maid is a human. They're all the same in the end, just different in how they act and talk and how people see them."

He could have almost believed that was a subtle jab at Britannia, but that was more of a Kallen thing. Nunnally doing it was something he couldn't imagine her doing.

"Also I'm pretty sure you are still a knight. I have some family in the military and anyone who pilots a Knightmares is called 'sir'."

"There are knights, and there are people who just guard the rear. That's been all I've been allowed to do since…well the thing."

He shot a worried look at Nunnally, even if he knew that she couldn't see it. She could get a feel for what he was doing though, and he really hoped she'd be careful what she'd say. He had heard rumors that mention a certain fruit around this man would make him go ballistic, and he couldn't geass him again if he did snap.

"Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes we even knowingly make mistakes. You made one of those, and if you are still going that means you are trying to make up for it. It doesn't matter what people think of you, what it matters is what you think of yourself."

"What if you think you are stuck on a dead end when everyone is working against you, even your own people? At this point I've only got one friend, and she'd working the other end of the settlement today."

He didn't go berserk, but Jeremiah seemed to almost melt into his french-fries in his despair.

"Sometimes people do things you would disagree with because they want to protect you, or think it is for the best. She does it all the time."

Was that a jab at his gambling? Or about him reminding the boys in her grade that they had no say in their budgets and that if they tried to date them their sports clubs would get gutted? He was sure Nunnally didn't know about that last one. Perhaps he was wrong about that. Alice might have told her.

"Little miss, if that is what is happening I'd love to know what I'm being protected for. See, I'm after a miscreant whose been hitting the gambling circuits hard. He was always on our radar, just far less important than terrorists and people who didn't respond to the late viceroy's party invites. However he's a person of interest and we've been trying to find him."

"And is someone covering for his nefarious deeds? Does he have a noble sponsor?"

He'd have to remember to thank Suzaku properly for the heads up. When he got home he was going to make Suzaku's favorite food for dinner and have Sayoko drag him to their place to eat it.

Nunnally seemed a bit amused at him for how he described himself. Nefarious was a fun word and one that could be used to describe himself.

"More like a general protection. I owe this person some level of debt: I got into a fight a while back and she could have made my life much worse than it has been. She'd always been incredibly kind, but sometimes that gets in the way of you doing anything."

Per what Suzaku had said that was Euphemia. Suzaku and Euphemia saving his hide was a bit of an odd concept, but he'd take it. It was honestly not the oddest thing to happen to him recently.

"I've been trying to catch him for questioning when he's not in a place that would cause a stink, but I can't seem to find him. I've heard that he is active, but he's managing to elude us like a fox. He might even be here now and I wouldn't know where to start. Though that is partially because I had to report a few things unrelated to my personal hunt to the proper authorities. I can find the police leads but I can't find a single scrawny teenager."

"Well that's something at least. You stopped evil and probably saved a person or two. That's what a knight does. Everyone starts from the bottom even if they don't know it. You just need to start taking steps. That's what a hero of mine did, and she became an Empress."

What was Nunnally doing? Why was she bringing that up around a person who actually knew what the 'dead' Vi Britannias looked like?

Jeremiah seemed to get his spine and ability to sit up back after being reminded of their mother.

"You have good taste young one. Indeed, she was something special. It's something I don't see in a lot of people, and of the Viceroys I've met only the current duo even comes close. I was actually the Empress's guard once…you could say I'm cursed like that. Guard or knight or investigator, I can't seem to do squat."

Nunnally was on him before he could deflate again.

"You guarded her for more than one day. You were a knight for more than one day. You shouldn't let one day define your life. If I did that, I'd be miserable. Even a couple days shouldn't make someone who they are. You should look to tomorrow and begin what steps you need to take to make the next one better. I do that just by studying, but you are actually living life. You found some bad things here and reported it: those are good marks on any record like yours. Start from them and before you know it you'll be back where you started. Just don't deliberately put the wrong person on trial this time and the only problems you'll have are the ones you couldn't possibly see coming, like crazy men in masks."

Orange's smile seemed to be genuine.

"You know, it is so much simpler as a young person. I miss being like that. It actually is clearer than it is when you get older. No where near as many what-ifs. That is how it would have to be. Start small, rise up again. I did it once, and I can do it again. Even if it takes me decades, it will do me better than being miserable about it. Tell me young miss, what is your name?"

"Kallen Fenette. I'm nobody."

Nunnally could in fact lie quite well.

"We're all somebody. Ms. Fenette, you are more like your hero than you realize. You even look like her somewhat…"

The passing second felt like an hour before he stood up.

"Being miserable won't fix anything. I have a person of interest to find in this tower of scum. Even if I don't find him I'll restore my name filthy cretin by filthy cretin. All Hail Britannia!"

Of all the possible things he could say as a rallying declaration he chose that. He then walked away from the two of them with purpose, and completely unaware he had taken several finger foods from the 'nefarious miscreant' he was after in the first place.

Nunnally was smiling as he left.

"I think I did good with him."

…

She had no idea why of all the extra paperwork she got early in the morning half of it involved Jeremiah Gottwald in his spare time chasing after loose threads somehow leading to the arrests of dozen of criminals in the same poorly named tower, but she really in all honesty could care less.

Orange had made some friends and some enemies and given the court system some things to prosecute. It was just from the opposite end of where he did it from back with Kururugi's debacle.

A beep from her professional email lifted her head off a request from a noble to free their cousin who had been caught up at Babel Tower with a check in it (to be sent to her noble guard to go arrest the man and remind people that she did not need nor took bribes). Such emails could be anything, but they usually were more important than the average piece of spam.

The title of the email identified it from the commander of the Transcontinental Railroad Naval Base commander. The base had originally been in place to watch for attacks on Area 4 from Russia or China, but had in recent years been somewhat demoted to mostly guard the trans-Bering Sea bridge from sabotage

It wasn't the most pressing issue for her, but it was unusual enough that it would be foolish to not check it. She clicked the email, and a phantom of dread came over her.

_Ships originally stationed in Areas 9 and 10 have appeared in the Bering Sea. Their positioning in the sea only makes sense as to threaten the railroad bridges. As I am sure you know, the railroad is the main route for mass produced Knightmares to the Euro Britannians, along with several other resources that they require for the fronts against Europe. There is only one logical reason to do this._

The email ended there, and she stared at the screen in the hope of summoning a follow up email that explained that he accidentally sent it before he could finish it. However the email never came.

However what did come through was a phone call on the private line for the Area 11 viceroy. It could be any number of things from social gatherings filled with drab nobles with delusions of their grandeur, to Zero trying to take over the island of Hokaido, to more news relating to the email.

She really hoped it was another ball she was expected to attend. She'd even take Zero actually taking over Hokaido.

"This is Viceroy Cornelia."

"That holdout of the old order in Area 4 emailed you didn't he? That was simply unfortunate, as the rest of the Area's command was quite accommodating. He seemed to actually be loyal to the throne and not someone fit for the throne. Alas such fools are of no use to the new era of things."

The voice on the end of the line was Reginald Mer Britannia: 4th Prince of Britannia and Viceroy of Area 10. She'd have to also add to the title 'unofficial leader of Areas 4 and 9'. She could only hope it was just that.

"If you are calling to complain that Guinevere is not fit to rule, you could have done it at a reasonable time in the morning. Of course it is clear that isn't just what you are here to do."

Reginald's voice, which had an effect to it like splashing waves, echoed through the phone.

"If we are in agreement on the fact that I have more to do than just call Guinevere a dumbass with no right to the throne bar her age, let me simply cut to the chase. Today I shall be declaring myself the rightful Emperor of Britannia. Areas 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10 have already agreed to this. The African areas have been a bit busy with the whole 'disaster' thing to respond, but I can certainly tell you who controls the Atlantic. I will be expecting the Goddess of Victory and Area 11 to join me just as I expect the Euro Britannians to follow suit."

"Do you think you can threaten me!? I did not get the position of Chief General for being so easily cowed! We are in no place for a civil war, and yet you would start one!? Guinevere is a bitch, but even she isn't starting one out of naked greed and she won't give into you. I can certainly inform you that you will earn yourself few allies in the homeland with your tactics! Were you so weak you couldn't wait to spring it when things have calmed and a civil war wouldn't cost the empire potentially thousands of square miles of territory?! I will have no part in this idiocy!"

Reginald chuckled through the phone.

"Oh but don't be so hasty Cornelia. You are indeed the chief general, but perhaps you don't quite grasp the situation that you are in. Ask yourself who is the master of ships and who is stuck on an island that couldn't feed itself when it was just filled with dwarves in straw hats? You want to play a game of chicken with people who can't just eat rice all day long? That would be a terrible way for the Goddess of Victory to fall: torn apart by Britannains who can't go a few days without three course meals. Of course you could just declare yourself for me later today, and I won't blockade you into inglorious defeat. Your call sister, oh and don't bother calling Guinevere to tell her. I've already informed her of just when she can announce her abdication and how much money she can take with her when she does. I was actually quite generous."

The room was silent as Reginald hung up before she reached for the pre-saved numbers.

"Guilford. Get me every naval commander anchored on these damn islands. Immediately. Alert every garrison near their bases and have them on high alert. If the commanders do not respond immediately they are to be treated as the enemy."

"Yes my lady!"

…

**ROYAL FAMILY**

**Count at start of chapter: 86 children of Charles Zi Britannia**

Cornelia Li Britannia: Began preparing for one enemy, got a second enemy

Pyrrhus Hi Britannia: Preparing for multiple conflicts, a bit ahead of Cornelia

Marianne Vi Britannia: She was never normal

Reginald Mer Britannia: Has been networking for a bit.

**Count at end of chapter: 86 children of Charles Zi Britannia**

**NON ROYALS**

Lelouch Lamperouge/Zero/Lelouch Vi Britannia: Grinding for bonds and monies

C.C: Questioning the family she contracts with these days

Suzaku Kururgi: No one but the original R1 authors know what he is.

Lloyd Asplund: Doesn't really care about possibly hiring a superhuman.

Cecile Croomy: Doesn't get nearly enough screen time in fic.

Azora Azevedo: First O.C with a P.O.V (if named characters with no personality don't count).

Vulcan Ford: Role expanded by Generalissimo of Spacebattles's suggestion. Lisp came from myself.

Shirley Fenette: The only one without a tragic backstory.

Alice: Approved to marry Nunnally by her mother.

Jeralt: Rolo can't try to kill everyone. Red shirt.

Nunnally Lamperouge/Vi Britannia: Does not like being compared to a table.

Jeremiah Gottwald: May one day kick himself over chapter 4.

Fun fact: per a rewatch Cornelia had clearly Hispanic men lost at the Battle of Narita. Hence her better treatment of half bloods in fic versus say, Suzaku, though I'm not unaware there are other ways of taking that little detail than how I'm doing it. That of course means this Cornelia would probably be all on board with Lelouch x Kallen Kozuki if she joined Britannia.

Kallen Kozuki would not appreciate such shipping, even if she got to the point where both identities of Lelouch appealed to her. There are very few reasons she'd join Britannia after all, and the best I could come up with was some gamble by a discovered Lelouch that she would very much not appreciate.

Speaking of Kallen, Azora Azevedo was designed to be her counterpart with Pyrhhus as her Lelouch. Her first name refers to blue skies while Kallen's last name in Japanese is red moon. Azora's last name references European holly while 'Karen' refers to the lotus. Both are half bloods but Azora can't pretend to be pureblooded Britannian like Kallen can. Azora never knew her Britannian father and grew up poor, while Kallen knew hers and did not grow up poor. She uses a long ranged Knightmare and Kallen a close range. Azora likes baths and Kallen showers, and people like interrupting them during both. Both are loyal to a Prince, but Kallen doesn't know it and said Prince wants to burn the empire to the ground. Azora's meanwhile wants to rebuild it in his image, which possibly will involve burning things.

Also some Shirley got in Azora given how the two first met. Odd that, it wasn't intentional.

Pyrrhus meanwhile has some 'Lelouch of Britannia' DNA in him, beyond just 'Lelouch' DNA both as a character and as, well, a Britannia.

I've been having more fun than I expected exploring how culture in this world developed differently and could develop differently with the events of Code Geass. Japanese media is more the latter, but I had a bit of fun making jokes about Kallen with the old Superman quotes and the Percy Jackson stuff came up after I had Lloyd joke about Suzaku being a demigod so I expanded it (yes timeline issues, but Pizza Hut is big early so timeline comparisons are nonsense anyway)

For the curious Britannian Superman is basically written with a lot of 'Knight in Shining Armor' motifs and would be considered the sort of character anyone who wants to be a 'true knight' would inspire to be. I wouldn't be surprised if Oldrin Zevon has a level of fondness for the character. He probably isn't as prone to calling out the government as post Crisis Superman is, but probably more prone to going against societal norms than the depths of Silver Age Superman. I imagine that his origin story resonates with people who have a certain alienation from mainline Britannains, though I have no idea how he'd be seen by the unwilling immigrants that are Numbers.

Meanwhile the Britannain Riordanverse is a bit different. Because Britannian is obsessed with the tales of King Arthur I'm thinking that this world's Rick Riordan probably started with a Arthurian story in his style to get the attention of publishers, but probably had Percy Jackson in it as a backdoor set up to the story he really wanted to do, which followed after he was successful in the first one. It might seem odd, but Arthurian lore has ties to mythologies like Greek-Roman and Celtic IRL, and he is named somewhat akin to Percival. Said version of Percy Jackson and the Olympians is age lifted akin to the movies, but made properly and any changes to the series make sense. The third series mentioned is a counterpart to the Magnus Chase series, and I'd question if Egyptian Mythology is much referenced given that I can't think of why Britannia would be exposed to it.

Comparing the two is a bit of a stretch, but they have enough similarities I don't think that Shirley dreaming 'of the best underwater kiss ever' is hard to imagine her doing and they do like drawing him like Greco-Roman art in canon as I recall. Plus I felt like saying 'surely Shirley' at least once.

Alice is in the story, mostly because I want Nunnally to have some supporting cast to herself and I have some big ideas planned for Nunnally as a result in a bit. However her place in the story averts the 'direct translation' problem that some stories have with her: namely trying to make Nightmare of Nunnally stuff fit in regular Code Geass. It never works in my experience, hence why she has a different origin story.

Also Marianne was fun to write. She might be more fleshed out than Yui Ikari or Naoto Kazuki but exactly what she actually thinks like isn't all that clear. Contradictory information is there too…so I decided to take bits of it and give it my own twisted spin. The fun thing is that while she's completely nuts, and probably was a fruit loop even before dying and possibly just getting nuttier with death, you can sort of see her point in a few places: I've always sort of thought that her ability to connect with the children of other wives like Clovis, Cornelia, and Euphemia was a stabilizing and good influence on the royals overall and it doesn't seem to be visible in any of the other royal consorts we've had mentioned.


End file.
